Root Beer Carbonation - Plastic vs. Glass

[Sparky112]

Short Version:

I am having difficulty getting my soda to carbonate properly. I think the problem may be one of the following:

#1 - I may not be waiting long enough for the carbonation to occur, despite the fact that I wait until the bottles feel quite firm (as firm as a bottle of soda in the store) before I stick them in the fridge.

#2 - I may be inhibiting the yeast somehow. Does using cold water, or using glass bottles, cause the yeast not to perform properly? Carbonation seems to work when I use plastic bottles, but has not yet worked when using glass bottles.

#3 - My standards may be too high. Perhaps it is too much to ask for homemade soda to stay bubbly for more than 12 hours.

I would certainly appreciate any guidance on this issue. If you would like details on the approach I've taken, I've written out the whole story below. Thanks!

****

Long Version:

My grandfather used to make root beer and my brother and I both enjoyed it immensely as kids, so I was pleased when my brother gave me a set of glass bottles and some root beer and birch beer extracts for my birthday.

Batch #1: I made this batch per the extract manufacturer's "quick start" instructions, using a 2-liter soda bottle, yeast, and the birch beer extract. The taste was good, and the carbonation was fine - actually, it was a little too much. I left it sitting out in the cupboard for several weeks after opening, and I came back later to find the bottle had significantly expanded from the pressure! Anyway, I set aside the brewing project for a while, but came back to it a month or so ago.

For Batch #2, I decided to try out the glass bottles, like Grandpa used to use. I mixed according to the recipe instructions, let it sit out at room temperature for a few days, then moved it to the basement for the remainder of a week. When I cracked open the first bottle, there was NO carbonation at all. None. Same for the rest of the bottles.

Batch #3, essentially the same thing as Batch #2.

Batch #4: With my brother coming to visit, I scoured the Internet looking for different recipes. I found the Epicurious recipe which calls for using a 2-liter bottle, but uses a different method than the manufacturer's instructions I used in Batch #1. This method requires you to leave the bottle out in a warm place until it's very firm, and then refrigerate it. I tried it, and it definitely carbonated much better ... at least initially. The bottle firmed up after just 8-10 hours or so, but when I opened it to pour, there were very few bubbles to be found.

Batch #5 was pretty much the same as Batch #4 except that I found this site, read some threads, and decided to make the following changes - 1) use a different extract; 2) boil the glass bottles before using them in order to sanitize them; 3) put the mix into a plastic soda bottle as well as the glass bottles so that I can tell when the carbonation has worked.

The soda in the 2-liter bottle was the most carbonated of any so far, at least initially, and my brother and I enjoyed a nice glass of it. However, the next day it was totally flat. Also, I just now cracked open one of the glass bottles and it's almost completely flat as well!

What am I doing wrong?! Is there just something about glass that prevents it from staying carbonated? Am I not waiting long enough for the carbonation to make it into the soda?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[cappy]

I've had a bottle of rootbeer extract for a year now. I finally bought some champagne yeast last night. I'm going to try it out this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes. The plan is to use mostly glass bottles with a few plastic ones to test carbonation. Most of the recipes I've seen call for the 2 Liter but I always figured it would go flat after the first pour. You backed that up for me.

 

[duganderson]

You can get very fizzy carbonation with yeast in glass bottles. I just make sure to use test bottles of similar size to the glass bottles. If you want them well carbonated, I make sure the test bottles are somewhat stiffer than the plastic bottles when purchased before opening.

 

[Bush_84]

A few things I'd wonder about. First being the seal. Are you using the proper type of bottle? Any bottle that you twisted the cap off to open, I wouldn't use. I guess the other thing is that I typically let my bottles sit for 2-4 weeks after bottling before I test carbonation.

 

[cappy]

I finally mixed up a 1 gallon test batch last night while I had some real beer boiling away. I filled eleven 12oz glass bottles and one 20oz plastic to test carbonation. I had some green Heineken bottles I had been saving for apfelwein so I used those. The only problem is my wing capper seemed to have trouble with the bottles. I don't think it got a good seal. After doing some research it looks like a bench capper is needed for the Heines. I did have one Newcastle in the mix so hopefully it will hold up. I put the bottles in a box inside a plastic tub with a lid just in case the caps don't hold. I don't want to be cleaning up sticky soda! I have them down in the basement at about 68 for now. I'll be keeping a close eye on the plastic bottle for carbonation.

 

[Khasario]

I was having a similar problem, though it may be due to a different reason. I was using water that was too hot causing my soda to not carbonate fully or at all. This was more pronounced with the root beer versus other flavors, and I'm not sure why that is. I had light carbonation with lemon-lime soda, and medium carbonation with cola... and completely flat root beer.

I rebottled everything from my root beer batch after mixing in some fresh yeast @ 98 degrees with the room temperature soda mixture.

Less than 24 hours later the plastic bottles filled out and 4 days later they're getting almost "glass hard". I figure another couple days and they'll be good to go into the fridge.

So, in short, my issue appears to have been the temperatures being used.

 

[bbdog]

I only brew soda with yeast and glass bottles. I generally use wild berries which are coated in yeast of their own, and then add a pinch of champagne yeast. However, back when I used extracts, they generally instructed 1/8-1/4 tsp yeast with WARM water. Cold water will not support the yeast enough to carbonate.

 

[bluerdg]

My son and I have recently started making rootbeer as a result of his receiving a Mr. Rootbeer kit for Christmas. After seeing the contents of the kit, I initially categorized it along with the Easy Bake oven, and ice cream makers my daughters have received over the years. Mr. Rootbeer provides enough ingredients to make 8L of root beer, 4 1L plastic rootbeer style bottles and these nifty plastic caps with a hole in them and rubber seals with a pressure relief slit in them. After our first batch I had to rethink my opinion of the kit as it produced a great rootbeer. What I did find is that the bottle, seal and test for firmness test as detailed in their instructions and above was not an effective test for proper carbonation. 2-3 days with any carbonation is more than enough pressure to firm up the bottles, but we found it still produced a flat beverage. Based on the instructions and out of fear we'd end up with 4 bottles of spewing soda, I moved our first batch to the fridge thinking chilling might help. After testing and finding it still flat, I broke the seal on all 4 bottles, resecured the caps and moved them back to the counter, figuring I'd be pouring it all down the drain in a few days. After 2-3 days back on the counter, I was surprised to find we had great tasting rootbeer. The kiddie caps also surprised me. Each of the bottles retained carbonation despite being opened and resealed while being consumed, and the 4th bottle (lasted late into second week after moving to the fridge) was as fresh tasting as the first. We moved our second batch into the fridge yesterday and it followed suit with the first, taking more than the recommended 2 days to reach proper carbonation.