Graduation Party

Well, we recently celebrated my brothers graduation, but it was more a party then anything. He and my parents gave a speech but it was all done sitting down, eating.

For the occasion about 2 weeks earlier I had started a 4 gallon batch of ginger beer. I was going to make October Ale as the drink, so that is what the soda was for. It went very well, the kids loved it and it ran out before everyone had had their 'fill', everyone got some, some more then others. : ) One little girl their said that the wine was really good at that she was going on her 5th. : ) I guess the Ale part makes them think they are drinking wine. : )

October Ale
2 cups ginger beer (or ginger ale works also)
1 cup grape juice
1-2 tsp of sugar (if using ginger ale you may not have/want to)

Chill ginger beer and add sugar to grape juice and chill, about 15 minutes before serving mix together in pail or pitcher.

Note: This is just the ratio, multiply it as many times as you need to. Their are 16 cups in a gallon, roughly.

English Vintner

Soda

Well, just made two batches on monday. Grandparents coming through on Friday, so were having homemade pizza and homemade soda.

I think I sorta messed up the RB, wasn't looking at a recipe and forgot the measurements and put to much RB extract in it.

Anyway, better run!

English Vinter
English Brewer!

Cheers,
Daniel

p.s.

Althogh this looks backwards, its not. :)

I forgot to mention the reason why I caution. I found that soda I left out for several days seemed to have a sour flavor, as if starting to go bad. Especially with the cream soda, its light and some flavors show through better. So I think other wild yeast (the ones that make sourdough?) and bacteria will get in their and produce stuff you don't want. Have a blessed week.

E.V.

Caution

While I do suggest waiting before you bottle you soda I caution (from experience) that you should not leave it out for more then 24 hours. If yeast does not seem visible then either bottle with added yeast, or I suggest bringing to 150-180 to kill anything in their and repitching some fresh yeast once it has cooled down.

You could even make a starter before hand, but to help ensure carbonation, added some yeast nutrient, or if you are in a quick fix and don't have any, just boil some yeast (cook it to kill it) and add that. That has every thing yeast needs.

E.V.

Champagne for kids

Well, many of you may like this idea, especially if you have younger children that you don't want drinking your hard stuff. Here we will be making soda, and then putting in champange bottles with plastic stoppers and wires.

Make a regular batch of soda (1 gal.), this should fill about 4 champagne bottles. I prefer to make cream soda in them so it looks more like the real stuff, but any soda will do.

Make the soda according to my recipe and when the yeast is going good bottle in champagne bottles. You should be able to find all that you need to do it at your local wine/beer suppiler, or order online. I would wait 3-4 days, you should see foam at the top of the liquid in the bottles, this indicates it is carbonating. You can tell if it is really fizzy because the stopper will be a little bit up from the bottle. In this case bring the temp. of the soda in the bottle down to about 34º, I'm serious, you need to do this in order to not loose any soda. Then take off the stopper, if it doesn't pop of then use pliers to help.

E.V.

Root Beer Recipe

Here is my own recipe for superb root beer.

The Best Root Beer
2 Tbs of Maltodextrin
2 Tbs of Malt, dried powdered
2 cups of raw cane sugar
1/2 Tbs of RB extract
1/2 Tbs of cream soda extract
1/4 tsp of beer yeast
water to make one gallon

Mix all the ingredients together except beer yeast. Bring to boil 2-3 cups of water. Pour over it and stir until everything is disolved. Then fill to one gallon with filtered water, preferably cool. Then add beer yeast. Let sit overnight, if you see foam on top then bottle, if not then keep it out until you see foam.

Bottle in two 2liter bottles, or glass bottles for better taste. Let sit in cool, room temp place for 3-4 days, until feels hard, or else soda taste cabonated, if your using glass. Move to refriderator and keep their for a minimum of one week, better after 2-3, but then can start going down hill after 3-4 weeks. Keep chilled and pour into glass, also makes great floats.

English Vintner

Why add what we add?

In my recipe I use a number of things, I will name them, and tell you why I use them.

Maltodextrin, it adds mouthfeel to the soda

Malt, dried malt extract adds a head to soda that beer has

Cane sugar, it adds complexity to the soda, giving it depth

Half cream soda, I like to add half cream soda extract to RB to give it a rich tastet to it

English Vintner