National Homebrew Club Ireland

As the title goes, Has anyone ever made/brewed soft drinks, ideally sugar free or reduced sugar?

I was thinking an extra tap and keg on the kegorator could have a soft drink on it for kids or when I want a cold drink and it's only 10 in the morning!!!

There's a good few ginger beer recipes out there. I've done a few but they were haphazard and I used safale us 05. If you're dedicated you can create a ginger beer starter in a similar way to a sourdough. There's alcohol but not a lot. Should be less than .5%. There's sugar in the recipe but the yeast should eat all that to make it fizzy (and slightly alcoholic). I gave up on it cause I was making it so regular it got dull.

I also still make kombucha and add 2 raspberry flavoured tea bags. A week later it's a tasty fizzy drink

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10 in the morning, man up!
Just pour your concentrate in the keg and carb. Only issue is getting through 19l might be fun. I have a 9l keg of San Pellegrino water clone she likes, an odd time I throw a cordial or a squeezed orange into a glass with it.

Some ginger beer kits come with an alcohol / no alcohol option. Essentially the can contents have very little fermentable sugars, and to get alcohol you add sugar during fermentation. The no alcohol version still needs to be carbed though which requires sugars (usually carb drops) to be added at bottling time . . . comes out at about 0.5% ABV which | believe is "technically" alcohol free.

Be interesting to make something from fresh ingredients though . . . fruits etc. Would you need sulphites and other preservatives since it has no alcohol? Hmmmm . . . .

I was going to just carb water like CH and add cordial as required. But thought someone might have a nice lemonade recipe or something similar.

You can get carb caps for plastic bottles and then just make 2 liters of something to carb up.
http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/stainless-carbonator-with-516-barb-p-3414.html (http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/stainless-carbonator-with-516-barb-p-3414.html)

+1,
Don't forget the 6 spoons of sugar per 330ml 🤢

Cola
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1013686-cola-syrup

Not the same as Coke but nice.

You can make an fruit crush with the juice from the fruit peeled to make the cola and simple syrup.

Dandelion and burdock
https://summerfruitcup.wordpress.com/tag/dandelion-and-burdock-recipe/

Bit like root beer. Nice with gin and tonic.

Easiest way to use these is to make up the syrup and put in a clean, sanitised flip top, keep refrigerated and add carbonated water to taste.

Obviously you can sub splenda for sugar, and you might want to sub at least part of the sugar when you see how much there is :o

This is an interesting (but not entirely practical) book about making soda that I enjoyed.

https://www.artofdrink.com/product/fix-the-pumps

You can also cut down on the sugar a little by replacing some of the water with fruit juice (although that's quite sugary in itself) or simply carbonating sugar free dilutables.
One problem you'll have with brewed soft drinks is that they'll keep fermenting unless pasteurised (which i think is a balls).
Even in a cold fridge they'll still ferment a bit and build excessive pressure over time.

I second the kombucha option, you can make some really tasty kombucha with fruit juices added

http://www.soundcloud.com/aural-abuse

Iambic  8) 8)

Historically "mammy" used to brew 2-3%ers for the kids to drink, it was safer than the water and they slept through the night, ok they might if only lived to 40 tho.

They still sell tafelbier in Belgian supermarkets (next to the 11% Gordon's tramp juice.) No idea who buys it.


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I don't think Mamó (my ma) would be too impressed with me giving her grandchild a table beer for s nightcap!!

I'll try some commercial kombucha to see what it tastes like. I've never had it begore

Like the time I was away with herself and my old man gave the kids apple juice that I had pasteurised for breakfast, except all the bottles weren't fully pasteurised and some had fermented
"Grandad this tastes funny"
"Get it down ya, it's good for you"

Quote from: Fal on March 12, 2017, 06:48:16 PM
I don't think Mamó (my ma) would be too impressed with me giving her grandchild a table beer for s nightcap!!

I'll try some commercial kombucha to see what it tastes like. I've never had it begore

Ahh heee-yurr given the amount of gripe water and whiskey she dosed you with she's hardly one to talk!

I'd be interested to see how you get on, I've been playing the idea to make Root Beer. There's a brand in the states called "Not your Father's Root Beer" which is 6% and tastes amazing! ( If you like root beer that is!)

Quote from: Fal on March 11, 2017, 05:39:41 PM
As the title goes, Has anyone ever made/brewed soft drinks, ideally sugar free or reduced sugar?

I was thinking an extra tap and keg on the kegorator could have a soft drink on it for kids or when I want a cold drink and it's only 10 in the morning!!!

BYO did a few series on homemade sodas as well.  I downloaded them but they're the divil to read on PDF but I'll have a look and let you know which issues.

 Root beer has stuff like winter green in it which isn't so readily available here. Dandelions and burdock is quite similar in taste, although not the same and the ingredients are easy enough to get in whole food shops.


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