I nearly killed my ginger bugs guys and by that I mean I just majorly slacked on feeding them. Once really active and established you can go up to a week or more if you need to without feeding but I'll be honest when I say other things were just more important at the time. I managed to bring back my larger ginger bug and start a smaller one with it so I'm still brewing.

I started a new batch of lemon lime ginger beer with limes from our tree. I started three quarts with what was basically sweet lemonade as the base with the ginger starter added.

This bowl worth of starter, both pulp and juice, was split between three quart jars that I filled to the top with juice and covered with a coffee filter. They'll sit on my fridge for a few days to ferment, then will be bottled to build fizz.

This is an easy, quick and super active ferment so it's a lot of fun but also mildly dangerous as explosions are common. Never leave a pressurized bottle at room temperature for more than a few days lest you risk literal explosion.

A ginger bug is live when there are those bubbles and air pockets. When there are none it's not active. You can try feeding it but within 24 hours if there are no bubbles it's dead. I saved the big one but not the small one which is technically the first in this ginger bug family.

I do want to add as a note that a dead ginger bug is not technically a failure but a successful finished ferment of it's own. As long as there is no mold it's still fine if it's not bubbling, it's just not good for brewing. I distributed this among my birds today as they love themselves a ferment.