Fermented drinks with no sugar? 🍺 FERMENTATION Q&A

Welcome back to the fermentation adventure. In this episode we're answering one of the most popular questions we get about fermented drinks like kombucha, water kefir, and all kinds of fermented drinks made from a gingerbug starter culture. Can you make fermented drinks without sugar or at least with less sugar? This is a two-part question so we're going to cover both. Join us on this journey to explore the world of fermentation. Start now by clicking subscribe and hitting that bell so you don't miss a thing. First can you make fermented drinks without sugar? Generally we would say no because fermented drinks it needs some kind of a fuel source to get the fermentation process started. Whether that's glucose or fructose the yeast and bacteria need something to eat so they can ferment it. But we can make fermented drinks without adding traditional sugars. For example if it's naturally sweet then we could actually ferment it without adding additional sugars. We actually did a test on this on our video where we tested all kinds of sugars and whether or not they would ferment. And if you remember it was a whole bunch of different jars with different kinds of sugars and one of them we used just pineapple fruit. It definitely worked. There was a lot of bubbles so they were consuming a lot of sugar. It was delicious and we didn't add any additional sugars. Definitely check out that video. So the follow-up question is can you make fermented drinks using less sugar? Definitely. There are a couple different strategies that you can use if you want your fermented drinks to end up with less sugar in the end. You can simply use less sugar in your fermented drinks. So let's say in our fermented ginger ale recipe if we call for a certain amount of sugar you could just simply cut it in half. And it would definitely still work and still taste great. You really just have to adjust all of these recipes to your taste. So if you want less sugar start with less sugar. Another way to create a low sugar or practically even no sugar ferment is just to let it ferment much much longer. We have some ginger ales in the fridge they're fermenting for months and it's nearly dry. We can't taste any sugar at all. Or years. Sometimes we do leave bottles in there for years and they are still drinkable. But very dry. The key here is that sugars are used up during the fermentation process. So the longer you ferment these the less sugar will remain in your fermented drink. And that means we consume less sugar. And all you have to do is just simply taste test it along the way and see how sweet it is. And you know what kind of sweetness that you want. So if you want less sweet ferment longer. Now you could also go for the practically no sugar fermented drink by letting it ferment all the way out. Until there's practically no more sugar left. Which generally happens after there are no more bubbles left. And just keep in mind that the longer you ferment the more alcohol you will have in your fermented drink. And this is because alcohol is just a natural byproduct of the fermentation process. And that's up to a certain extent because yeast have different tolerance of alcohol levels. And if you ferment it all the way out but you still want that little bit of sweetness you can add some kind of natural or artificial sweetener. We like stevia. These natural and artificial sweeteners doesn't actually help you during the fermentation process. It won't work. But it does add a good sweetness right before drinking. And you can use you know how much ever you want to taste. We hope this has answered your question about fermented drinks and sugar. And we hope you're making some awesome drinks with less sugar. Less sugar. And if you haven't done so already be sure to subscribe. We'd love for you to join the culture. Happy fermenting!