# Brewed Soft Drinks



## panspermian (12/8/15)

Hi there,
I'm keen on brewing home made soft drinks. While doing research I discovered Lacto bacillus bacteria are used. (I never knew this). Apparently whey from yoghurt can be used to get things started. 
It seems like all you need is fresh juice or herbal tea, probiotic yoghurt and a whey you go (sorry).

Would something like Yakult probiotic drink be alright as a starter?
Has anyone out there attempted brewed soft drinks and would anyone have any recipes they would like to share?

SWMBO just thinks I have another crazy idea in my head.

Cheers.


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## Danscraftbeer (12/8/15)

I haven't fermented soft drink but I make an awesome Ginger Ale (unfermented) and just force carbonate in an 11lt keg. Yeah that's cheating really but 800g Juiced ginger root in 11lt has health benefits anyway. 
I do fermented foods though. For vegetables etc I only use the vegatables natural bacteria. Some people use probiotic tablets, yoghurts etc. Yakult only has one strain. Tablets have 2 strains. Yoghurts can have multiple strains. Some sware only to use milk cultures for milk stuff, and the natural bacteria's that's in veggie/fruits. All comes down to some research and experimentations. There is some good info shared in this forum on these subjects. Its a great experiment and knowing that consuming this stuff has probiotic health value. Its also quite addictive in flavors. I'll do it forever now. B)
True ginger ale is cultured with Ginger Beer Plant, which is tricky to get the real genuine thing and some purists say the true ginger plant was lost in the past but you can try to develop a culture yourself. Or buy a satchel online somewhere.


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## markyspark (13/8/15)

Ive been making raspberry soft drink lately, basically I mash up around 100-200g of raspberries with a bunch of sugar, pour this into a 1lt glass bottle. Taste and add more sugar if needed. Then I added about 30ml from my ginger beer plant that has been fermenting away. This adds the yeast to start the fermentation. Cover with a cloth and leave for around 2 days. The longer you leave it the more the taste will change, especially if you use strawberries. When I see some of the raspberries have formed a layer on the top I bottle it and add 1 ts of sugar to give it that extra kick. Wait until the plastic bottle hardens up (usually in 2 days), refrigerate it over night and enjoy.

I started my ginger beer plant using champagne yeast, and now I keep it going by adding a bit from the old batch to the new. Maybe you could use a tiny amount of champagne yeast to start it? Or let it naturally ferment


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## super_simian (13/8/15)

If you use ale/lager/bread/champagne/wine yeast, your 'soft' drink will ferment out much like beer or wine. Capturing wild yeast by 'growing' a ginger beer plant much the same, unless you're super lucky.

Buying ginger beer SCOBY, which is saccharomycodes ludwigii and lacto bacteria is pretty cheap and easy - I did it for years till I moved and the culture didn't come with me. The ludwigii is a pretty lazy fermenter as opposed to sacch.c and what little alcohol it puts out is converted by the lacto, so the drink gets tarter and tarter instead of boozier and boozier.

I was thinking, with the rage for fermented veg going on, I might try a straight lacto culture soon, since the cultures are pretty readily available now.

Also I used rice malt syrup instead of sugar in my ginger beer, as it slowed fermentation down even more for the SCOBY, meaning the drink lasted longer.


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## super_simian (17/8/15)

super_simian said:


> If you use ale/lager/bread/champagne/wine yeast, your 'soft' drink will ferment out much like beer or wine. Capturing wild yeast by 'growing' a ginger beer plant much the same, unless you're super lucky.
> 
> Buying ginger beer SCOBY, which is saccharomycodes ludwigii Saccharomyces florentinus and lacto bacteria is pretty cheap and easy - I did it for years till I moved and the culture didn't come with me. The ludwigii florentinus is a pretty lazy fermenter as opposed to sacch.c and what little alcohol it puts out is converted by the lacto, so the drink gets tarter and tarter instead of boozier and boozier.
> 
> ...


*Realised I had the wrong yeast in there; although ludwigii sounds like an interesting critter also, Saccharomyces florentinus is the yeast in ginger beer SCOBY.

Also, I found a refrigerated dried SCOBY I had forgotten about, so I'll be trying it out tonight to check if there's any life left; then it'll be all systems go for summer!


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