Equipment
- ▢Medium Pot
- ▢Fine Mesh Sieve
- ▢One Gallon Glass Wide Mouth Jar
- ▢Cheesecloth
- ▢Rubber Band
- ▢Small Funnel
- ▢Flip Top Bottles
Ingredients
- US Customary – Metric
- ▢6″ piece fresh turmeric peeled and sliced
- ▢1″ piece fresh ginger peeled and sliced (optional)
- ▢1 tsp black peppercorns (optional)
- ▢14-16 cups filtered water divided
- ▢1 cup sugar or more to taste
- ▢1/2 cup ginger Bug
Instructions
- Place the turmeric root, ginger, and peppercorns in a medium pot along with 8 cups of filtered water. Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Remove from heat, then cool slightly (just until it’s not hot enough to crack a glass jar). Strain the turmeric tea into a wide mouth gallon jar.
- Add the sugar to the turmeric tea and stir to dissolve.
- Add additional filtered water to the jar, leaving 2-3″ inches of headspace. Cool to room temperature.
- Add the ginger bug to the cooled turmeric tea, then stir well. Cover the jar with cheesecloth secured with a rubber band or air lock.
- Place the jar in a dark corner. Stir once a day. It should start bubbling within a day or two. Ferment to taste, anywhere from 1-2 days in a warmer spot to 3-4 days in a cooler location.
- When you’re ready to bottle, strain the soda to filter out the pieces from the turmeric bug. Use a funnel to transfer the soda into flip top bottles. Set the bottles aside at room temperature for a few days to a few weeks to build up carbonation. Refrigerate once fermented to your preference.
Essentially, the growler (1 gallon jug) fermentation process is to see if the carbonation is working. Once it has then you can start bottling in the flip tops. In the beginning, I would ferment it in the growler for almost a week before bottling. The result was a higher content of alcohol which was not what I wanted.
Notes
Turmeric soda will last a few months in the refrigerator.
