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I've made a gingerbug many times in the past and been successful, the longest of which I kept alive for over a year until another project took over.

My issue this time is that after bottling my drinks I find the bottles become as tight as a drum in two days but when it comes to serving the drinks there really isn't much fizz, the bubbles are tiny and by the time I open the bottle for a second time the drink is almost flat.

What am I doing wrong?

I've seen many recipes that recommend burping the bottles for a couple of days but won't that prevent the drink becoming fizzier?

Also I've seen one post that says that the best indicator that it's ready is the presence of bubbles at the top of the bottle, is this true?

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My guess would be you have insufficient residual sugar when you are bottling. They pressurize up because you have a healthy active fermentation but you do not have sufficient residual sugar to fully carbonate.

I advise, either: bottling a day earlier, or adding a teaspoonful of sugar to the bottle when bottling up.

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    Maybe more detailed: how many gr/oz. per liter/pint?
    – chthon
    Commented Apr 17, 2018 at 6:23
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    3-5g/l should do you right, you may wish to paly with the levels over a few bottles and see which works best for your brew bottle combo.
    – Mr_road ♦
    Commented Apr 17, 2018 at 14:13
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    I'm using my own recipes that I used a hundred times before but strangely enough tonight i have had success. Taking in to account Mr_road answer from earlier in think I am making sense of it. All the bugs I have made previously were never massively active whereas this time I've used organic ginger and the bug is as active as anything. I have always relied on the bottle being drum tight to indicate carbonation and it never occurred to me that a much more active ferment would cause pressure build up aside from carbonation pressure, in short it is important to burp the bottle.
    – Jason Gabriel
    Commented Apr 17, 2018 at 19:01

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