# Brewing Soft Drinks



## DrewCarey82 (18/1/06)

G'day Guys.

Just wondering what experience you guys have had at this.

Searched but couldnt find any actual recipes.

I was thinking too maybe get rasperry concentrate(Could somebody provide me with a brand name and price.) 

And 3kg of dextrose or sugar(What would you recommend and what would the difference in price be.) and just a normal brewers yeast.

Already got the lemonade and ginger beer going saving a fortune on my beer costs am now trying to avoid buying the missus's drinks @ the bottlo.

Cheers


----------



## pint of lager (18/1/06)

I haven't seen any recipes that use cordial concentrates.

If it has alcohol in it, I don't think it would then be called a soft drink.

Watch the concentrates, they are often loaded with preservatives, and these will stop your yeast from working. You may have better luck following an apple cider style recipe and using another style of juice. Use the juice from the warm shelves of the supermarket, these have usually been pastuerised, rather than loaded with chemicals and preservatives. Make sure you buy a bottle labeled preservative free. Usually, the products in the cold section of the supermarket are loaded with preservatives.

Make sure you use a decent yeast nutrient. Plain fruit juice usually does not supply enough of the right nutrients for your yeast to work properly.

I would suggest you use a champagne style yeast rather than a beer yeast, as a beer yeast works best with malt.

For preference, I would suggest dextrose rather than sucrose.

A starter recipe would be, 8 litres juice (or pastuerised non-preservative concentrate to that amount) 2 litres water, 1.2 kg dextrose, yeast nutrient (amont as suggested on packet, if no amount stated, use two teaspoons) and one packet of champagne yeast. If you like the result, scale up and adjust quantities and ratios. Do not go overboard on extra dextrose to push the alcohol up.

Have a lookout for a product called Oz-tops. They contain a few different yeasts and caps that replaces a standard fruit juice cap and and pet bottle cap. The oz-tops lids allow CO2 to vent. Makes turning fruit juice into carbonated alcojuice very easy.


----------



## DrewCarey82 (18/1/06)

Do you know of a way to create say passiona / creaming soda ect?

Cheers.


----------



## Stuster (18/1/06)

How about a Sodastream? Makes all sorts ofsoft drinks, but we really just use it for the fizzy water.


----------



## Charlie (18/1/06)

DrewCarey82,

You're a man after my own heart. Also makes it easier to justify to the missus spending all that time brewing when she is getting something out of it.  

On a trip to Perth, at a brewery in Margaret River my wife tasted an alcoholic creaming soda and has been at me to brew her one of those.

I've been experimenting with this for a couple of months now.

I initially made a test brew (a 2 litre coke bottle with an airlock) with the recommended soda stream 'cream soda' cordial dose and enough sugar to have an SG of around 1040. I used a spare coopers kit yeat I had lying around. For some reason this seemed to take an age to ferment (like 3 - 4 weeks) and took several rousings (read: shook the bottle !). But when it finished, the results seemed acceptable (well the actual responses from my wife and my sister were 'Yep I'll have a case of this thanks')

Next I tried the same but with a standard cordial, but this never seemed to ferment, no matter what I did. There are a few possible reasons for this

* Maybe there is some preservative or something in the cordial that inhibited the yeast from growing.
* Normal cordial is a '1 in 4' recommended dose where as the soda stream stuff is '1 in 23', which meant that I didn't get to add much sugar. If the sugars in the cordial are not fermentable, then this could also be the problem.

Anyway, just before XMAS then just made a 23L batch of 'alcoholic water' - just water, sugar and yeast (another coopers kit yeast). Again this heaps longer than my beers to ferment, but once it did, I bulk primed the batch and bottled it, adding an appropriate dose of cordial to each bottle. This allowed me to try a range of different flavours and brands. So far I've only tried the soda stream based ones - I can recommend the cranberry one, if you like that sort of thing. I will try one of the normal cordial ones tonight to see if secondary fermentation continued in the bottle and let you know.

Having said that, there is a bit of an underlying funny taste (to me it was like popcorn kernals!) which I have attributed to the cheap coopers yeast. Next time, I will look at lashing out on a champagne or wine yeast that might end up with a cleaner taste.

cheers


----------



## DrewCarey82 (18/1/06)

Thanks Charlie.

I honestly thought it would be a simple matter of adding sugar and concentrate and yeast and yammo. - Good thing I didnt just plow into it.

How much do those yeasts go for?

Cheers.


----------



## Airgead (18/1/06)

DrewCarey82 said:


> G'day Guys.
> 
> Just wondering what experience you guys have had at this.
> 
> ...



The thing you have to watch with this sort of girly drink is that they are sweet and need to be sweet to taste any good. If you let them ferment dry they taste foul (or fouler than they already do). Because you are looking at essentialy just sugar, water flavouring and colour in those concentrates there are no dextrins to give it any residual sweetness so it will ferment out dry and thus taste like crap. If you brew it dry then sweeten it back up when you bottle, you risk setting the yeast off again and causing explosions.

My suggestion would be to get some neutral yeast, probably one of the ones they use for distilling and make up a batch of alcowater at around 10-12% (sugar, water, yeast). This will be slightly winey tasting and quite nasty but the flavour should be weak enough to be masked by anything you add to it. 

You are still stuck with something you can't sweeten for fear of causing explosions though so I would then kill off or remove the yeast either by filtering or just by heating to around 65C for around 10 minutes. This will give you a nice safe base you can use to make whatever sweet syrupy concoction your wife desires. 

Since its 10-12% you can cut it 50/50 with soda water to make a 5-6% fizzy drink just like the ones in the shops only much cheaper. The sodastream concentrates would be a good place to start for flavours of you could go upmarket and try fruit juices.

Cheers
Dave


----------



## mobrien (18/1/06)

Just off the top of my head - but if you were kegging, couldn't you just sweeten the dry fermented brew back up as you keg it?

Matt


----------



## Airgead (18/1/06)

mobrien said:


> Just off the top of my head - but if you were kegging, couldn't you just sweeten the dry fermented brew back up as you keg it?
> 
> Matt
> [post="103237"][/post]​



Its not likely to explode in a keg but if the yeast kicks back in the sweetness will be fermented back out pretty quickly. You would need to keep adding sweetness and the %alc would keep creeping up (maybe not a bad thing h34r: ). You might also find that it went pretty cloudy which wouldn't look too nice.

You could use an artificial sweetner but I find those taste nasty and I'm sure they can't be good for you.

Cheers
Dave


----------



## mobrien (18/1/06)

I don't know how much yeast activity there is just above zero, but one could also filter out the yeast with one of the u-beaut filters 

Again - just an idea as I sit here not doing the work I should be!

M


----------



## DrewCarey82 (18/1/06)

I wonder what fruits I could use to make sweet drinks already used ginger beer + lemonade(Which is taking its time to ferment).


----------



## Airgead (18/1/06)

mobrien said:


> I don't know how much yeast activity there is just above zero, but one could also filter out the yeast with one of the u-beaut filters
> 
> Again - just an idea as I sit here not doing the work I should be!
> 
> ...



Very true. I'm stuck in bottle conditioning land and forgot thast kegs can be kept refrigerated and carbonated from a gas bottle.

But do you really want to give up one of your taps to a girly drink when you could have another beer on tap? Of course you might just have to buy a bigger font... and more taps... and a bigger fridge... and all for her sake  

Cheers
Dave


----------



## bradmcm (18/1/06)

At the end of the day, if you are making soft drinks and carbonating using yeast you will end up disappointed.
Either you are going to use an artificial sweetner (yummy?) or use sugar and having to drink all the softdrink before the bottles burst from the sugar being converted to alcohol and CO2. And as soon as you open the bottle you will get yeast throughout the drink.

If you want good quality softies, get a kegging system.
A keg of soda water in the fridge and a range of Sodastream, Bickfords and Buderim Ginger and you are set. A slosh of syrup in the glass and fill 'er up with the soda water.


----------



## Airgead (18/1/06)

DrewCarey82 said:


> I wonder what fruits I could use to make sweet drinks already used ginger beer + lemonade(Which is taking its time to ferment).
> [post="103245"][/post]​



Try rasberry. I made a rather nice rasbery wit for my wife last year. Went down a treat. All the berries work (possibly not blueberry though that can taste a bit wierd sometimes). Cherry is good too. Passionfruit. Melon juice. Lime. For something realy diferent try rose water. I made an alcoholic rosewater icecream a while ago that was pratty good.

Cheers
Dave


----------



## DrewCarey82 (18/1/06)

Being in a pretty cramped unit a kegging fridge just isnt an option could fit one in the garage but I'll be farked if I am going down two flights of stairs and 30 metres each way to get a single drink and being designated bartender I'd have to.

Any suggestions for girly drinks that can be bottle conditioned besides lemonade and ginger beer?


----------



## Airgead (18/1/06)

DrewCarey82 said:


> Being in a pretty cramped unit a kegging fridge just isnt an option could fit one in the garage but I'll be farked if I am going down two flights of stairs and 30 metres each way to get a single drink and being designated bartender I'd have to.
> 
> Any suggestions for girly drinks that can be bottle conditioned besides lemonade and ginger beer?
> [post="103252"][/post]​



You could invest in a sodastream machine. That way you can force carbonate and bottle. I don't think they are all that dear.

Or just make up an alcoholic base that you can flavour and add to soda water (an alcoholic cordial) to get the fizz.

Cheers
Dave


----------



## DrewCarey82 (18/1/06)

Airgead said:


> DrewCarey82 said:
> 
> 
> > I wonder what fruits I could use to make sweet drinks already used ginger beer + lemonade(Which is taking its time to ferment).
> ...



How much do you need and what the ratio of water.

Particularly for passionfruit and raspery.


----------



## Airgead (18/1/06)

DrewCarey82 said:


> How much do you need and what the ratio of water.
> 
> Particularly for passionfruit and raspery.
> [post="103255"][/post]​



For the rasberry wit I used 400g for 4l and that was nice. Could have been a little stronger so next time I'll use 500g. 

For dift drinks I would make up syrups - 

Passionfruit I would suggest cooking up your passionfruit with half its weight in sugar and boil for 10 minutes. Then strain this to make a pasionfruit syryp.

Rasberry - press out the juice and add half its weight in sugar. Stir over low heat to disolve but don't let it get too hot ot it tastes cooked and not as nice.

Thay are pretty strong so you don't need much. I'd say 20ml in a glass.

It all depends on how strong you (or she) likes it and how big your glasses are.

Cheers
Dave


----------



## Stuster (18/1/06)

DrewCarey

How about trying Oztops? You can use them on most juices. You let them ferment for a few days and then pop them in the fridge. Since they don't ferment out they are not too dry. Very easy, and they can do double duty if you make yeast starters. :beer:


----------



## Charlie (18/1/06)

Drew,

Other than a slight underlying yeast taste, the sweetness from the cordial didn't seem to ferment, so they tasted OK.

As for the champagne yeast, I think a dry pack would go for around $3 - $4. Heaps cheaper than buying chick drinks.

I would suggest that you try a few small experimental attempts with a 2 or 3 litre bottle as your fermenter (I bought a 'holed' rubber bung from my local HBS that would fit the top of the bottle for a buck or two). Doing this, a packet yeast would last several experiments as you only be puts a gram or so in each mini batch.

For the passionfruit, I don't know if there are any passiona flavoured cordials out there ... but surely there must be a tropical one which would do the trick

cheers


----------



## Jazzafish (18/1/06)

Check out:

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...=girly%20drinks


----------



## deebee (18/1/06)

The real solution to this problem is Oztops. There are a few threads on this forum somewhere about Oztops. Buy the PET bottle lids in a kit with two types of yeast from your homebrew shop for a little more than $20. It will make hundreds of litres of alcoholic fruit drink: very drinkable very cheap. It is the only home brewing related drink my wife will touch.


----------



## Stuster (18/1/06)

Great minds deebee. (See my post above)

Cheers


----------



## ausdb (18/1/06)

deebee said:


> The real solution to this problem is Oztops.
> 
> It is the only home brewing related drink my wife will touch.
> [post="103312"][/post]​



Amen brother!

Berri dark grape juice is the bomb, the P&N brand one does not turn out quite as well.

Also Ocean Spray cranbery juice does not ferment


----------



## DrewCarey82 (19/1/06)

Jazzafish said:


> Check out:
> 
> http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...=girly%20drinks
> [post="103283"][/post]​



Seen it and like I said I dont keg so that threads no use to me.


----------



## Tseay (3/2/06)

All,

Rather than start a new thread on Ginger Beer- I've hijacked this one.

Something really weird seems to have happended to my lastest batch of GB.

The forumla is simple- Coopers Kit, 300g dextrose, 1kg of raw sugar and around 25g of fresh ginger- soaked in Vodka for 10 minutes and then addded to the primary. I made the volume up to 21l ( instead of the 19 recommended) and used an English Ale yeast- OG around 1030. 

Fermentation seemed very slow and so I added the yeast that came with the kit ( Coopers standard ale yeast) and it kicked on. Measured the SG last night ( in primary for around 10 days now) and got a reading close to 1.00 - What the !

Didn't think this was possible - any thoughts.

Tastes OK - any thoughts as to how Iwould have got an SG equivalent to pure water.

Thanks

T


----------



## dreamboat (3/2/06)

More than possible that you get less than 1.000.... remember that ethanol has a gravity of <1.000, so the more ethanol, the lower your gravity will be... combined with the yeasties tending to consume the stuff with gravity >1.000, so the yeast do all the work, but there are two reasons why your grav will drop. All of that sugar in there is fully fermentable, and will contribute to the low result as it gets converted to alcohol.



dreamboat


----------



## Guest Lurker (3/2/06)

1.000 isnt unusual for a sugar based brew. There is still residual sugar there, but the gravity it adds is equal to the gravity lost as a result of the presence of the alcohol, giving you a reading similar to water.


----------



## Tseay (3/2/06)

Thanks guys, I've never encountered an FG that low before. I usually have the opposite problem. On to bottling.

Cheers

T

PS - of cousre I use the terms "guys" in its non-sexist sense


----------

