Sorry if im in the wrong forum. My question regards root beer bottling fermentation. I trying to make small batches of root beer using sassafras, sarsaparilla, and a variety of herbs and berries. I find all root beers on the market are too sweet so I thought it would be fun to try myself. Im using flip top bottles. I first tried using a ginger bug but the flavor was awful and it was barely carbonated. I switched to using brewers yeast. The flavor is improving with each batch but the carbonation is inconsistent. Fortunately non have exploded but some were way too carbonated. It seems like the carbonation continues to build almost indefinitely, even after refrigeration. Any tips are appreciated.
Root beer fermentation
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For actual beer, there are various combinations of sugars that are considered fermentable and unfermentable by the types of beer yeast we use. Some beer yeast will ferment more of the sugars that are typically considered unfermentable and give a dryer tasting beer.
While I don't know for certain, I think that the yeasts they use for wine making more fully ferment out all the sugars. So maybe that's what you might try.
Also in beer making, we ferment the beer fully before putting in bottles. When we bottle it, we add a calculated amount of sugar or wort to the finished beer that will ferment to carbonate that bottle. That way we don't have overly fizzy beer or worse, bottle bombs.
If you are making a soda type root beer with no or low alcohol, there is soda making section in the Food and Beverage category further down the home page. But many of those sub-forums don't get as much traffic through them.
While I don't know for certain, I think that the yeasts they use for wine making more fully ferment out all the sugars. So maybe that's what you might try.
Also in beer making, we ferment the beer fully before putting in bottles. When we bottle it, we add a calculated amount of sugar or wort to the finished beer that will ferment to carbonate that bottle. That way we don't have overly fizzy beer or worse, bottle bombs.
If you are making a soda type root beer with no or low alcohol, there is soda making section in the Food and Beverage category further down the home page. But many of those sub-forums don't get as much traffic through them.
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Velnerj
Simul justus et potator
I have been down this road before. My conclusion is this: The easiest and safest way to carbonate non alcoholic root beer, is to just make a concentrated syrup and add this to bubbly water. Or soda stream.....
Using yeast to carbonate will create bottle bombs unless you pasteurized after a certain time. This is difficult to calculate and there is even the danger of bottle bombs in the pasteurization process.
You could keg it and force carbonate, but if you don't have a kegging system this is an expensive route. And I've heard that rootbeer flavor is herd to get out of kegging lines. Which is fine if you have a dedicated line just for rootbeer.
I love rootbeer and hope to one day make my own but if I do I will go the syrup route, one of my kegging lines is dedicated to sparkling water.
Using yeast to carbonate will create bottle bombs unless you pasteurized after a certain time. This is difficult to calculate and there is even the danger of bottle bombs in the pasteurization process.
You could keg it and force carbonate, but if you don't have a kegging system this is an expensive route. And I've heard that rootbeer flavor is herd to get out of kegging lines. Which is fine if you have a dedicated line just for rootbeer.
I love rootbeer and hope to one day make my own but if I do I will go the syrup route, one of my kegging lines is dedicated to sparkling water.
I've had this same issue with ginger beer! I am new to this forum and brewing in general so this is just my personal experience, but here are some things I've tried:
- Do it in a 2 liter plastic soda bottle. Ya just start drinking as soon as it's carbonated enough, let it re-carbonate when necessary, and experience the whole transition from sweet to not-sweet. It's fun, cheap, less dangerous than glass plus you can actually feel when the pressure's too high, but it's not ideal for dialing in the taste
- Do what you're doing. I probably made a hundred bottles of ginger beer this way over several years, before I finally detonated
- Actually let the sugars ferment out entirely in a container with an airlock, then "prime" it when you bottle it, like @hotbeer said. I found that this tasted a little bit... empty? I don't know how to describe it, unless I bumped up the sugar content and made actual ginger Beer. I didn't like the taste of that much cane sugar fermented so I switched to DME. Downside (?) it's alcoholic, upside, it's predictable
- Remove *all* of the sugar from your recipe except what you need to carbonate it - then mix it with simple syrup when you pour a drink, to get exactly the right amount of sweetness. I only tried this once because when I did it tasted yeasty, but looking back I think I probably opened the bottles way too early (like 2 days instead of 2 weeks)
- Make a syrup and carbonate it without fermentation, like @Velnerj said
fluketamer
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i have actually had very good results with this mr beer rootbeer kit.
the caps have little pressure valves . once they get hard and bulging , i would refrigerate to stop the fermentation and it usually worked but you have to keep it very cold. like kegerator temps.
if you really wanted to you can pasteurize the PET bottles in 155 degree water for 15 minutes to kill the yeast . that defiantely works.
replace the extract with a good one i used to use zatarains but i think its not available anymore. i used to make very good orange cream and cherry cream soda with this kit and the proper extracts.
the problem with home made sodas is that simialr to you i started to make them to control the sugar but to make them palatable they still need a fair amount of sugar and the amount even when trying to use less is so much that its hard to justify producing homemade soda.
i can accept intaking massive amounts of malt cause it turns to alcohol and at least i am getting more out of it than a sugar buzz. crude i know but facts.
the caps have little pressure valves . once they get hard and bulging , i would refrigerate to stop the fermentation and it usually worked but you have to keep it very cold. like kegerator temps.
if you really wanted to you can pasteurize the PET bottles in 155 degree water for 15 minutes to kill the yeast . that defiantely works.
replace the extract with a good one i used to use zatarains but i think its not available anymore. i used to make very good orange cream and cherry cream soda with this kit and the proper extracts.
the problem with home made sodas is that simialr to you i started to make them to control the sugar but to make them palatable they still need a fair amount of sugar and the amount even when trying to use less is so much that its hard to justify producing homemade soda.
i can accept intaking massive amounts of malt cause it turns to alcohol and at least i am getting more out of it than a sugar buzz. crude i know but facts.
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