It worked!

After two days of brewing and a few hours in the fridge to chill, the ginger ale was a success! Not wanting it to be too sweet, I went easy on the sugar (I think 2/3 cups for 1.5L of water). So it tasted more like a gingery spritzer. Next time I might use a little more sugar, and try to up the spicy ginger flavor, which I love. But more importantly, the fermentation was perfect. It's like magic -- two days ago, it was water, and now there is carbonation!

As for my other projects, I grew more positive about the whole wheat bread, which is now all gone after giving some away. The sourdough starter might be dead. I've started another using a different technique, and giving the original one some time to come back. We'll see what happens. In the meantime I might have to make more of the other bread!