I had leftover whey after making yogurt, so I made ginger ale.

I followed this recipe. (I also tried making ricotta cheese and it was a total fail: it never curdled.)

Overall:

• It didn’t do anything for 2 days, then it suddently showed signs of fermentation (namely, carbonation).
• Next time, I’ll bleed some CO2 as it goes. Maybe that would make it fizzier.

Mix

I used a 2-liter soda bottle because the contents would become very pressurized. These bottles are designed to handle it!

I mixed honey (1 1/2 cups, yum), lemon juice, grated ginger, and a bit of whey:

Then I filled it almost to the top with water, leaving some space for CO2.

Lactic acid bacteria in the whey will eat sugar from the honey and turn it into lactic acid, CO2, and a tiny bit of alcohol.

Wait

The recipe said “3 to 7 days”. I left it for 4 days. It pretty much looked like this the whole time:

(It’s translucent and brown-ish, with little bubbles on the top.)

For the first 2 days, nothing happened. I was afraid it would be a failure like the ricotta.

On day 3, it was noticeably more pressurized.

By day 4, it was so pressurized that I thought it would explode in the kitchen, so I put it in the fridge.

It rested in the fridge for about 20 hours.

Enjoy

It turned out gingery, sweet, & lightly carbonated:

Next time, I’ll try to make it more carbonated. I might also add less lemon juice & more ginger.