http://www.democraticunderground.com/115714928Oh my.
It's pretty boring on Skins's island today, what with the
lumpenunterprimitiven, the faceless lynch mob, and ProSense, the "Baghdad Bob" primitive, dominating the action.
So I went over to the cooking and baking forum.
shireen (7,226 posts) Fri Sep 28, 2012, 06:43 PM
Homemade sodas?
Has anyone tried making homemade sodas, either with yeasts, carbonating the beverage, or using tonic water with syrups?
I love Gus extra dry ginger ale but it's pricey. So I'm looking for a way to make dry ginger ale at home. I'd also love to try making sodas out of apple, passion fruit, and raspberry juices.
Also interested in making ginger beer, you know, the kind with alcohol in it.
cbayer (111,833 posts) Fri Sep 28, 2012, 06:58 PM
1. A friend has one of those soda machines and loves it.
All it does is inject CO2 into any liquid you choose. I don't know if it will save a lot of money, but you can make only what you need, so you don't throw out flat beverages.
^^franksolich's former
objet d'desir on Skins's island, but not any more.
<<needs way more than 150 square feet in which to live.
Retrograde (3,028 posts) Sat Sep 29, 2012, 01:44 AM
4. I've done ginger ale using yeast according to Alton Brown's directions at the Food Network website. It didn't explode (a plastic bottle helped), and tasted like commercial ginger ale. The recipe I used made 2 liters, and took about a week.
eridani (36,134 posts) Sat Sep 29, 2012, 05:40 AM
5. You add the CO2 BEFORE you add flavoring
Any flavoring you make will need to be reasonably concentrated. Maybe trying various ginger ale recipes without the yeast until you find something that you like?
Warpy (64,872 posts) Fri Sep 28, 2012, 08:12 PM
2. Yeasted sodas are very tricky because you don't get to an end point when the yeast has used up all the sugar and then re sugar it with enough dextrose to carbonate and no more. Most people who try things like root beers end up with alcoholic soda and a lot of broken bottles.
I have a Soda Stream setup and it's great. Most of their mixes are good but I confess I didn't like their ginger ale. YMMV, somebody must like it or they'd make it differently.
The break even point on the Soda Stream is $2.50 per case of canned soda, something you can equal and often beat on generic Walmart sodas or at Costco. The best parts are not having to lug stuff home from the market and then recycle all the containers.
^^the defrocked warped primitive, who's meaner and uglier than an old rattlesnake, with a face like Hindenberg's and a body like Mussolini's.
no_hypocrisy (24,180 posts) Fri Sep 28, 2012, 09:06 PM
3. I make my own "syrups" and add club soda or sparkling water.
You can make lemon, lime, ginger ale syrup with just water, sugar, and the other ingredient.
Right now, I've run concord grapes through the juicer, making it a concentrate, and add the sparkling water. It's divine!
