Homemade soda .... healthier versions

[freemotion]

Holy grape soda, Batman!!!!

It is DEEEEE licious! I used a can of Welch's purple grape frozen concentrate in a two liter bottle with a bit of yeast, one day in a warm room and two day in the fridge. I do not taste yeast!!! I left the sugar out of the recipe and it is a good thing, as I find this to be very sweet as it is.

Next time I will add more water and water it down a bit more. Yummm!

 

[freemotion]

Orange soda.....pretty good, but could use something. I used a can of store-brand frozen orange juice concentrate and the juice of one lemon, freshly squeezed. No additional sugar.

I like this in that it is a nice treat to have something carbonated...but I will try something different in my next batch. I'll add more water, another lemon, and maybe a bit of orange zest to add more flavor, then boost the sweetness with some liquid stevia.

It is not like "orange soda," which is just artificial flavorings and dye and HFCS anyways.

I think I would like this a lot more if I'd tried it before the grape, which was super yummy.

Oh, and it is not the least bit yeasty. Using champagne yeast must be the big difference.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Ooooh cool, they sound great free! I have high hopes for my blackberry mix. I've got champagne yeast on its way, so I'll post about it when it comes in & I can fuss with it (I've been wanting an excuse to order it anyways )

Then I can make some more hooch, too

 

[Bettacreek]

Wow. I need the right yeast I suppose. I tasted my rootbeer licorice today and it was exactly like swishing peroxide.

 

[urban dreamer]

I'm gonna try grape. The Honey Ginger tasted like sour, spoiled beer. We tried it again last night and, nope, still tasted yucky. I think I may have used wayyyyy too much yeast. Either that or yeast just loves my kitchen because we lost half the bottle to fizz. I love kitchen experiments!

 

[miss_thenorth]

Just wanted to report that I made the cream soda. Apparently it was delicious, but I never got to taste it as my kids drank it all before I got home.

DS was the scientist on this batch, and nurtured it . My ony problem was that I didn't have any plastic bottles so i couldn't tell if the carbonation level was good or not. i put it in a glass jar with the lid slightly ajar. I set it out for 2 days, as my dining room is cold, and tehn refrigerated it for two days. In the morning, ds asks me if the soda will be ready that night, i said yes, and he and his sister drank it all while hubby and i were at a party.

I went to the grocery store and bought 4 bottles of club soda, and one is empty now, so I'm going to make a larger batch of it. Once another bottle is empty, i am going to make the ginger ale, as I bought some ginger root also.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Free, when you made your grape soda, did you mix the welch's like it said on the container, and brew it that way? What were your cncentrate/ water ratios?

 

[freemotion]

I used one can and filled the two liter bottle all the way with water, so it was slightly watered down. I would be happy with it even more watered down, personally, so I will try maybe 3 liters per can. But it was absolutely delicious as I made it! Too tempting to chug down all that sugar, though, even though it is natural.....so I will water it down a bit.

I noticed that it got less sweet as it sat in the fridge for a few days, so fermentation must've continued, although much more slowly.

 

[freemotion]

Time for another batch of soda....I found some interesting juices at my local discount store, all without sulfites. The one I am making tonight comes in a little 1 liter box. The brand is "Ceres" and it is a blend of pear juice and youngberry puree' and nothing else.

I measured the specific gravity of the juice first, just for the sake of the experiment...I have no idea how it will impact the soda. The juice was 1.050 by itself with a potential alcohol of almost 13%, although this is not a wine project. I watered it down with an equal amount of water and added three droppersful of liquid stevia extract. I found the resulting juice to be pleasant but a bit bland. The juice of a lemon might be nice in this, but I don't have one and just want to try it. The plain juice had a flavor similar to cranberry juice, not something I was interested in making into soda as is.

Ooops, I forgot to measure the sg after watering it down....right now the yeast is re-hydrating in a small cup with some of the juice in it. Gonna go measure the sg, then add the yeast. I used a bit less than 1/8 tsp of yeast from the packed I opened late November.

eta: sg after adding water/stevia was 1.030. Thought it would be much less.

 

[Bettacreek]

I had made the rootbeer with rootbeer extract. I had to add more rootbeer extract in the end, but all in all it was pretty good. Tasted like rootbeer with less carbonation. I never got to actually drink it, just taste test it, since my stepfather threw it away. :/