![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ann_leckieSaturday was Saturday--violin lessons, laundry, etc.
Sunday we went fishing. Turns out, the local park lake, where we'd been fishing this summer, becomes Trout Heaven (with different rules than in summer) after November 1, which we didn't realize. In any event, Paidhi Girl caught two nice trout, which were photographed and then returned to their homes. We realized pretty quickly, though, that nothing was biting but trout, we didn't have trout permits, and there wasn't really any point in trying to catch anything else.
So then, instead of going straight home, we went to the homebrew store.
Paidhi Girl had been looking in the Steve Spangler Science catalogue and seen a kit for making rootbeer. "Do you even like rootbeer?" I asked. She had no idea, but the thought of making soda was intriguing her tremendously. "Forget the kit," I said. "I've made beer, I can sure as heck make soda." So we hit Google for information, asked Mr. Cameron to get 2 liter bottles from the banquet hall he often DJs at, and pondered possible flavors.
We decided on Celestial Seasonings True Blueberry tea. So Sunday we hit the homebrew store for champagne yeast, went home, and made soda. It was easy! And this morning it was ready. And it was good!
We also made two liters of Honey Soda (Paidhi Boy's flavor choice). It's quite good--it tastes very much like honey--but it's a bit too sweet. I forgot to add some acid at the end of the boil, and I'm thinking that might do the trick next time.
Here's the blueberry soda:
a little over 2l of water (some boils off)
1/4 cup sugar
Bring these to a boil. Then remove from heat and add
4 True Blueberry tea bags
Let them steep for 15 minutes. Remove the tea bags. Let the whole thing cool to about 85 or 90 F. About five minutes before the liquid reaches temp, mix
1 packet champagne yeast
1/4 cup warm tap water
1/2 teaspoon sugar
(edited to add--don't mix these things in the cooling liquid. mix them in their own separate bowl and let them sit so the yeast gets frothy. When I re-read this I realized I'd worded it ambiguously, and someone not familiar with working with yeast might not have found it self-evident. Sorry.)
Once the soda base has reached temp, add
2 teaspoons of the yeast slurry
Bottle in a clean (preferably bleach-soaked) 2l plastic soda bottle and cap. Leave it alone until it's carbonated--the bottle will be hard. This doesn't take long, overnight should do the trick. Then put your soda in the fridge so the yeast don't keep fermenting away and eat up all the sugar and make the bottle explosive.
That's it. Most of the time making it is waiting for the liquid to cool. Yay, home made soda!
Sunday we went fishing. Turns out, the local park lake, where we'd been fishing this summer, becomes Trout Heaven (with different rules than in summer) after November 1, which we didn't realize. In any event, Paidhi Girl caught two nice trout, which were photographed and then returned to their homes. We realized pretty quickly, though, that nothing was biting but trout, we didn't have trout permits, and there wasn't really any point in trying to catch anything else.
So then, instead of going straight home, we went to the homebrew store.
Paidhi Girl had been looking in the Steve Spangler Science catalogue and seen a kit for making rootbeer. "Do you even like rootbeer?" I asked. She had no idea, but the thought of making soda was intriguing her tremendously. "Forget the kit," I said. "I've made beer, I can sure as heck make soda." So we hit Google for information, asked Mr. Cameron to get 2 liter bottles from the banquet hall he often DJs at, and pondered possible flavors.
We decided on Celestial Seasonings True Blueberry tea. So Sunday we hit the homebrew store for champagne yeast, went home, and made soda. It was easy! And this morning it was ready. And it was good!
We also made two liters of Honey Soda (Paidhi Boy's flavor choice). It's quite good--it tastes very much like honey--but it's a bit too sweet. I forgot to add some acid at the end of the boil, and I'm thinking that might do the trick next time.
Here's the blueberry soda:
a little over 2l of water (some boils off)
1/4 cup sugar
Bring these to a boil. Then remove from heat and add
4 True Blueberry tea bags
Let them steep for 15 minutes. Remove the tea bags. Let the whole thing cool to about 85 or 90 F. About five minutes before the liquid reaches temp, mix
1 packet champagne yeast
1/4 cup warm tap water
1/2 teaspoon sugar
(edited to add--don't mix these things in the cooling liquid. mix them in their own separate bowl and let them sit so the yeast gets frothy. When I re-read this I realized I'd worded it ambiguously, and someone not familiar with working with yeast might not have found it self-evident. Sorry.)
Once the soda base has reached temp, add
2 teaspoons of the yeast slurry
Bottle in a clean (preferably bleach-soaked) 2l plastic soda bottle and cap. Leave it alone until it's carbonated--the bottle will be hard. This doesn't take long, overnight should do the trick. Then put your soda in the fridge so the yeast don't keep fermenting away and eat up all the sugar and make the bottle explosive.
That's it. Most of the time making it is waiting for the liquid to cool. Yay, home made soda!