3/4 bottles of ginger ale stay flat

Kombucha, sodas, water kefir, rejuvelac, kvass, and more...

Moderator: Christopher Weeks

3/4 bottles of ginger ale stay flat

Postby godutch on Wed Jan 27, 2016 9:54 am

I just got into this fermenting business. Last week I successfully made some ginger ale with my own ginger bug. This week I tried again. I made some ginger syrup and mixd up 4 bottles of mineral water, all with more or less the same quantities of syrup and half a lime and gingerbug. Only one bottle went fizzy however, the rest just don't seem to do anything. I tried to make a new ginger bug by putting some of the old stuff with fresh ginger, water and sugar and it went fizzy within a few hours, so I put some of that stuff in the unfermented bottles but nothing.

I don't get why 1 bottle did ferment and the rest just refuse to do anything, they all just stay very sweet and fleet. I did use another type of sugar for the 2nd batch (dutch type basterd sugar,ie white sugar/inversugar mixture, for the first and regular whit for the second) but that doesn't explain why one bottle did ferment....
godutch
 
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2016 2:50 pm

Re: 3/4 bottles of ginger ale stay flat

Postby godutch on Wed Jan 27, 2016 2:55 pm

I tried one of the flat bottles, strange flavour, not unpleasant but more reminiscent of liptonice with a hint of ginger than ginger ale
godutch
 
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2016 2:50 pm

Re: 3/4 bottles of ginger ale stay flat

Postby godutch on Thu Feb 04, 2016 4:48 am

is anyone reading this?

I made 3 new bottles, same ginger syrup, same dosage, same starter, stored in same locations and 1 bottles is really fizzy the other 2 stay flat
godutch
 
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2016 2:50 pm

Re: 3/4 bottles of ginger ale stay flat

Postby Christopher Weeks on Thu Feb 04, 2016 8:33 am

I've read it but have no idea why you're experiencing that. My best guess is you have some faulty bottles that won't hold pressure, but I assume you know that can't be the problem because you have your actual eyes and hands on the bottles. So I don't know.
Christopher Weeks
Nuka Ninja
 
Posts: 2602
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2010 3:59 pm
Location: Carlton County, MN

Re: 3/4 bottles of ginger ale stay flat

Postby godutch on Thu Feb 04, 2016 8:44 am

Christopher Weeks wrote:I've read it but have no idea why you're experiencing that. My best guess is you have some faulty bottles that won't hold pressure, but I assume you know that can't be the problem because you have your actual eyes and hands on the bottles. So I don't know.



It isn't that but I figured a way to fix it: mix some of the good and fizzy bottle with the flat ones and they start getting fizzy too.

I think there might be several species fighting each other for the sugar, one that produces a lot of fizz and another which doesn't. My starter has a tendency to go flat after a while, I tasted it and it got quite acidic and I could see a lot of debris in the jar but when I clean out the starter keeping the old ginger it will go fizzy again
godutch
 
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2016 2:50 pm

Re: 3/4 bottles of ginger ale stay flat

Postby Christopher Weeks on Thu Feb 04, 2016 11:04 am

My ginger bugs typically go something like this:
first few days - nothing
day 4 to day 8 - a little froth
day 9 or 10 - froth goes away
further days (even if I try to recharge it) - dead

And even then, about a third of them just fail to thrive.

Your hypothesis about multiple strains seems possible, but I wonder what's different from bottle to bottle. Why would one species colonize one bottle and not the other? They're experiencing the same conditions...
Christopher Weeks
Nuka Ninja
 
Posts: 2602
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2010 3:59 pm
Location: Carlton County, MN

Re: 3/4 bottles of ginger ale stay flat

Postby godutch on Thu Feb 04, 2016 5:05 pm

Christopher Weeks wrote:Your hypothesis about multiple strains seems possible, but I wonder what's different from bottle to bottle. Why would one species colonize one bottle and not the other? They're experiencing the same conditions...


i'm pretty new to this fermenting business, when my bug is going bad, I think, on the bottom is a lot of pinkish-grey sediment. The flat bottles also seem to produce more sediment. Maybe in the bad bottles I put some more of the bad stuff because they don't mix evenly, bubble in my starter seem to come from bits of ginger (though no idea if this is really the case, the bits could just serve as nuclei for the bubbles to form on)
godutch
 
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2016 2:50 pm

Re: 3/4 bottles of ginger ale stay flat

Postby godutch on Fri Feb 05, 2016 12:54 pm

I made 3 more bottles, one actually exploded (or the cap blew off) and the other 3 more or less are flat. Same water, same quantities, same syrup, same starter
godutch
 
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2016 2:50 pm

Re: 3/4 bottles of ginger ale stay flat

Postby khoomeizhi on Sat Feb 06, 2016 9:49 am

that is pretty weird.

the only variable seems to be the bottles. if what you're putting in them is nearly identical, there shouldn't be a reason for differences between bottles, except those which come from the bottle: bad seals (which you know you don't have - it would still ferment with a bad seal, just wouldn't carb up - have you tasted all the non-carbed ones to make sure?)...i don't suppose you're cleaning the bottles with something that could leave a residue that's harmful to yeast and gets rinsed out variably? that's the only other thing i can offer.

do report back if you figure it out.
khoomeizhi
 
Posts: 86
Joined: Thu Dec 13, 2012 10:15 pm
Location: wnc

Re: 3/4 bottles of ginger ale stay flat

Postby godutch on Sun May 08, 2016 12:03 pm

I gave up on ginger for now it's hard and temperatmental, a very fine balance between tasting good and like vinegar
godutch
 
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2016 2:50 pm


Return to Tonic Beverage Ferments

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests