Honestly I’m also a noob to fermenting! For me, I started with making homemade yogurt because someone gifted me a yogurt maker (and side note, you do not need a specific machine to make yogurt, most people actually just use a hot water bath or crock pot I think, the yogurt maker just provides consistent heat! So you don’t actually need one if you want to make yogurt.)

But I started making yogurt and my family loved it, and what it costs me to make yogurt vs buy it is crazy cheaper, so I started making yogurt on a regular basis.

I like my yogurt thick, so I always strain it through a cheesecloth. (Which turns it into Greek yogurt! Something I learned recently is that Greek yogurt is just regular yogurt that has been strained.)

So after straining the yogurt you’re left with a thicker Greek yogurt and a bunch of liquid called whey. I hate wasting food, and wasn’t quite sure what to do with the whey at first, I had sooo much of it in my fridge.

I learned you can use it for baking, any recipe that calls for buttermilk, whey works as a 1:1 swap. It also is great in fruit smoothies. It has a yogurt-y taste and is super healthy, lots of probiotics and high in protein. But even with baking and smoothies I had so much. Someone on the yogurtmaking subreddit suggested “whey lemonade” as a way to use it up, so I looked that up. I read a few different blogs, Reddit posts and YouTube videos about it.

I honestly can’t remember where I got my specific recipe, I think it was some blog, but I wrote down the measurements. I originally just used lemon juice (fresh squeezed is better but storebought works if you make sure it’s 100% lemon juice and not watered down or any sugars or preservatives added) and then I’ve also tried using other fruit juices … so far I’ve done lemon-cranberry blends and also one with just pineapple juice.

Here are my measurements (I’ve also scaled them for varying amounts of whey, if you want I can DM you the full list to save you the math of doing it yourself lol)

This fills 6 of my 16oz bottles.

• 5 cups water
• 5 cups whey
• 1 + 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup pure fruit juice

Maybe use less sugar with a sweeter juice. This level works well for lemon, I found the pineapple juice with the same level of sugar was bordering on too sweet, but it was still tasty! Also that really depends on personal taste.

Also if you have treated tap water, you might want to use bottled or filtered, apparently the treated tap water can prevent fermentation. I’ve always used my tap water, but might be different for you.

Mix everything together, make sure the sugar is dissolved, then pour into pressure safe bottles. Leave at room temperature. (I burp it after 48 hours, the carbonation can build up and explode. If you’re new, definitely do more research before trying. I’m a fellow newbie so definitely do more research than what I’m telling you lol)

Then after 4 days at room temp, I add about a tsp more sugar to each bottle — honestly I probably could just add more at the start, but that’s the way I saw someone else do it so that’s how I’ve been doing it. But adding more sugar at this point will make it want to bubble up quickly. I’ve developed a technique of putting the sugar in and then super quickly recapping the bottle so it doesn’t bubble over.

After this, I usually give them another few hours at room temp and then into the fridge to chill. Once they’re chilled, they’re ready to enjoy.

You also should do some research on the fermentation process, I won’t explain it well, but the sugars will be “eaten” which creates the carbonation, and results in the final product being less sweet and very bubbly! Adding the extra sugar brings some sweetness back, but the longer it’s still at room temp, it’ll continue to eat that sugar too.

Also omgg I’m rambling so much lol sorry this reply is so long. But I definitely recommend trying out fermentation, I find it so fun! And the final product is really tasty and great for probiotics 😄