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added Using Ginger Bug section
==Using Sourdough Starter==
* [http://brouwerij-chugach.com/?p=1001 Brian Hall's experience using a sourdough starter.]
==Using Ginger Bug==
Matt Spaanem on MTF on using ginger bug: "A ginger bug is just wild yeast and bacteria harvested from ginger root. Just grate up some ginger and add it to some sugar water. After a few days it starts visibly fermenting and you've got your bug... FG 0.995 makes this ~4.3% (OG ~1.028) uncarbed it's a bit dry/puckering/tannic (probably from the tea) with a friendly orangy/coriander flavored tartness and some funk hiding in the background. Ginger follows you throughout and lingers on the tongue. Overall it's good if a bit dry. I may chaptalize the keg if it still annoys me after it's carbed. I should give these bugs a go in an all malt 'real' beer... it was pretty good carbed and dry. I've since used the bug to ferment an actual beer (with malt/grain derived sugars instead of just sucrose) and it was very attenuative and the ''Brettanomyces'' made itself known for sure, the ''Lactobacillus'' less so, the beer was hopped to 8 IBU. It was in primary for 5 months and has been in secondary for ~2 months to see if anything more happens with it.
As for using ginger bug, I just treat it like any other yeast culture. Once you harvest it from the shredded ginger mixed with sugar water pitch it into a larger batch, use some nutrient. I haven't done any isolating or looking at it under the microscope, but based on behaviors and flavors produced, I believe my bug contains ''Saccharomyces'', ''Brettanomyces'' and ''Lactobacillus'' (though maybe not ''Lactobacillus'' anymore after passing through hopped wort). Obviously you're not guaranteed to catch all of these, it depends on your piece of ginger used, but you're probably likely to catch some yeast and ''Lactobacillus''.
According to Sandor Katz, ginger is also a wild source for ''Aspergillus oryzae'', the mold used to break down rice starches in sake and other rice wines. I tried harvesting it once, it worked, but I couldn't keep my incubation chamber quite warm enough so I also got another mold (probably ''Aspergillus niger'') that produces citric acid and the resulting fermented millet and rice beverage tasted almost exactly like lemon juice... I'll probably try this again now that I have a proper fermentation chamber that I can turn up to 95-100F that should (hopefully) inhibit the citric acid forming mold." <ref>[https://www.facebook.com/groups/MilkTheFunk/permalink/1069813693046844/ Conversation with Matt Spaanem on MTF regarding using ginger bug in beer. 05/09/2015.]</ref>
==See Also==