Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Homemade Soda!

For a few weeks now I've been playing around with making soda. For my first batch, I followed the instructions that came with the soda extract. That was a flop. It never carbonated. Discouraged, I experimented with using cheaper ingrediants, ginger. Althought it produced a nice carbonated beverage it was way too strong to replace the ginger ale that I like. This time around, I was quite pleased to see that I had successfully carbonated britch beer!
The first time I made the soda, with the instructions in the box, they told me to dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water then add it to the sugar and extract mixture. However, most websites will tell you do add the sugar then the yeast, shake it to mix it then add the rest. This way was a lot more successful.
If you're thinking about making your own soda but don't think that you'd like to commit to it just yet, try making cream soda using ingrediants you already have.

What you'll need:
1 2-liter empty soda bottle, rinsed thoughly with warm water
1/4 teaspoon baking yeast (if you really get into making soda you might want to switch to ale yeast which you can find at your local home brew store)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
Enough water to fill the bottle to about an inch from the top

What to do:
Funnel in the sugar and yeast. Swirl it around until thoughly mixed. Add the extract. Fill bottle to the top with cool water until about an inch from the top. Screw cap on. Invert repeatedly to dissolve sugar. Leave in a warm place for at least 24 to 48 hours until bottle feels hard. Place the bottle in the fridge for 24 hours and crack open and enjoy.

If you feel commited to soda making I suggest picking up a copy of Homemade Root Beer, Soda, & Pop by Stephen Cresswell. The book it filled with recipes and is helpful with creating your own soda recipe. It can be purchased through that link from Amazon.com for $10.17.

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