Hi all, just some notes on a few first sodas I made.
I started with standard "brewers yeast" (not labelled) and made.
- an "orange creamsicle soda" from a no-name extract I bought at the homebrew. I halved the sugar on first try: 80g / litre, and mistakenly used a full pack of the yeast. It turned out amazing! very bubbly, so much in fact that it almost burned, and it didn't overcarbonate to the point of spilling when opened.
- a rootbeer from an no-name extract from the same store. I only put 1/4tsp yeast for this one, same sugar as orange. It took about 3 days for the bottles to get rock hard. The rootbeer initially tasted a bit off, a little soapy almost. I at first thought perhaps contamination so I made another batch, but this time used a bleach mixture to properly sanitize everything (which I now do every time). The second batch was the same, so I assumed the extract. After leaving them in the fridge for a week they were much better, not sure if they were under-fermented before, but pretty good drinks!
Then I got adventurous. I switched to champagne yeast as it is supposed to have less of a flavour (the orange soda above had a yeast after-taste)
- Molasses soda sounded awesome so I made it: 3 litres of water, 2 cups dark molasses, 3 cinnamon sticks, 1.5cups sugar, 1 Tbsp maltodextrin (headening agent), 2 tsp vanilla extract, and 1/8tsp champagne yeast. These guys super-brewed, they got rock hard within a day, and I refrigerated them. The soda is not drinkable, it tastes terrible... I love molasses, but this, something is wrong. I think that perhaps vanilla and molasses do not mix.. I am burping them and leaving them in the fridge to try and ferment off some of the sugar.
- Honey soda! 3 cups honey and 1/8tsp champagne yeast to 3 litres of water. This guy took nearly a week to ferment and it still a little less bubbly than I would want, but it tastes awesome. I think I will make it less sweet next time, and, perhaps play with adding hops, I think it would complement the flavour very well.
Tonight I am off to make anotehr batch of rootbeer, and, I will try making the orange with even less sugar and add some artificial sweetener to bring it up. I want to find gum arabic to thicken this one but I haven't found it yet. I'll keep everyone posted!
I started with standard "brewers yeast" (not labelled) and made.
- an "orange creamsicle soda" from a no-name extract I bought at the homebrew. I halved the sugar on first try: 80g / litre, and mistakenly used a full pack of the yeast. It turned out amazing! very bubbly, so much in fact that it almost burned, and it didn't overcarbonate to the point of spilling when opened.
- a rootbeer from an no-name extract from the same store. I only put 1/4tsp yeast for this one, same sugar as orange. It took about 3 days for the bottles to get rock hard. The rootbeer initially tasted a bit off, a little soapy almost. I at first thought perhaps contamination so I made another batch, but this time used a bleach mixture to properly sanitize everything (which I now do every time). The second batch was the same, so I assumed the extract. After leaving them in the fridge for a week they were much better, not sure if they were under-fermented before, but pretty good drinks!
Then I got adventurous. I switched to champagne yeast as it is supposed to have less of a flavour (the orange soda above had a yeast after-taste)
- Molasses soda sounded awesome so I made it: 3 litres of water, 2 cups dark molasses, 3 cinnamon sticks, 1.5cups sugar, 1 Tbsp maltodextrin (headening agent), 2 tsp vanilla extract, and 1/8tsp champagne yeast. These guys super-brewed, they got rock hard within a day, and I refrigerated them. The soda is not drinkable, it tastes terrible... I love molasses, but this, something is wrong. I think that perhaps vanilla and molasses do not mix.. I am burping them and leaving them in the fridge to try and ferment off some of the sugar.
- Honey soda! 3 cups honey and 1/8tsp champagne yeast to 3 litres of water. This guy took nearly a week to ferment and it still a little less bubbly than I would want, but it tastes awesome. I think I will make it less sweet next time, and, perhaps play with adding hops, I think it would complement the flavour very well.
Tonight I am off to make anotehr batch of rootbeer, and, I will try making the orange with even less sugar and add some artificial sweetener to bring it up. I want to find gum arabic to thicken this one but I haven't found it yet. I'll keep everyone posted!