Brew something

Photograph by Scott Waite

Choose one path. Each takes an afternoon to start; the wait ranges from days to weeks.

Path one: ginger beer

1. Make a ginger bug. Stir 2 teaspoons of grated ginger and 2 teaspoons of sugar into a cup of water, cover with cloth, and keep it warm. Feed it the same amounts every day or two. In two days to a week it will start to fizz.
2. Brew the base. Follow a ginger bug recipe for the ginger, sugar, water, and citrus amounts; cool the mixture before adding your active bug.
3. Watch the bottles closely. Use bottles rated for carbonation, such as clean plastic soda bottles. Check pressure daily and refrigerate promptly when the bottles become firm. Do not leave sealed, active bottles warm for weeks: pressure can build until they burst. Open chilled bottles slowly over a sink. See the publisher’s bottle-pressure guidance.

Path two: kombucha

1. Start with a tested recipe and a store-bought culture. The University of Georgia Extension guide explains the food-safety steps. For a first batch, buy a SCOBY with its starter liquid rather than growing one.
2. Brew sweet tea. Follow the tested recipe and sanitize your equipment. Use clean glass, never glazed pottery, which can leach metals into the acidic tea. Let the tea cool before adding the culture and starter.
3. Cover and monitor. Follow the recipe’s fermentation and acidity guidance. If you see dry, fuzzy mold on the culture or liquid, discard the entire batch and clean the container.

Path three: a first batch of beer

1. Start with an extract kit. Malt extract skips the most technical step, so a first batch needs a big pot, a fermenter, and a sanitizer.
2. Sanitize everything. Anything that touches the beer after the boil should be sanitized. This one habit prevents most first-batch problems.
3. Boil, cool, add yeast. Follow the kit’s recipe, cool the wort quickly, and add yeast once it is at the temperature the packet lists.
4. Wait twice. About two weeks in the fermenter, then about two more in bottles to carbonate. The American Homebrewers Association has hundreds of extract recipes to try next.

If it feels hard

• If nothing is happening, check the temperature. Most ferments slow to a crawl in a cold kitchen.
• If you are avoiding alcohol, choose an unfermented ginger drink instead. Homemade ginger beer and kombucha can contain alcohol, sometimes more than expected; see The first Friday night at home for other ideas.
• If you are unsure whether kombucha is right for you, extension guides advise people who are pregnant, have weakened immune systems, or have certain health conditions to check with a doctor first.

The science, briefly

Yeast eats sugar and gives off carbon dioxide, which is where the fizz comes from. In beer, the yeast is allowed to keep going, which makes alcohol. In kombucha, yeast and bacteria work together, and the bacteria turn much of what the yeast makes into acids, which is why it tastes tart. Homebrewing is common, too: it has been legal in all 50 states since 2013, and about a million Americans brew at least once a year (Stateline).

Where to start

• Making kombucha safely at home, from University of Georgia Extension.
• Ginger beer and bottle-pressure guidance from Chelsea Green Publishing.
• 400+ extract homebrew recipes from the American Homebrewers Association.
• Another living ferment for your kitchen: One loaf a week.

Feed the bug. Wait for the fizz. Write down what you learned for next time.