• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

GAF [Pop/Soda] Making Thread | It's not called [soda/pop]

Status
Not open for further replies.

Rest

All these years later I still chuckle at what a fucking moron that guy is.
Note to readers: The word pop is not endorsed by the thread starter and should not be used to judge his character.

I try to eat healthy food, exercise, and generally improve or maintain my body's good function. But, like all people, I have a vice: I love soda. Cola, lemon lime, orange, root beer, cream soda, it doesn't matter.

But in these varieties of delicious refreshing beverages I have a tendency to over indulge, and lately, as my diet has improved, I've noticed that they don't really agree with me. Some leave me swollen, most make me dehydrated, and some just make me feel plain sick. So I've decided to try making my own soda with fresh ingredients, fewer (or no) preservatives, less (or no) salt, less sugar, and nothing artificial. With that in mind, I've started this thread to see who else makes their own soda on GAF, so that experiences and advice can be shared. If you've never made your own soda, I'll also provide some resources for doing so.

The Homemade Soda Expert (Jeremy Butler) was my starting point. The writer of this blog actually published a book this year, and that's how I was introduced to his blog. His book was actually the most informative of the few soda making books I've seen in stores, and has all the information you need for trying your hand at soda making, with three common techniques explained in detail. This blog has recipes and a link list to other resources as well, for everything from hardware, to further soda making techniques, to a FAQ about soda.

The Art of Fermentation is a book about fermentation, and if you're looking to get your carbonation naturally this will be a good reference for you.

To this point, those are the resources I vetted through my own use, I'll make updates as I use more services or get good feedback from people.
 
I found some fresh mandarin oranges this week and decided to make those into soda. My recipe was a basic citrus recipe, just zest the fruit, juice it, make the zest into a kind of tea and then sugar it and carbonate it.

Zesting mandarins is actually pretty hard, as they're too soft for a zester to really cut into the peel well. A test bottle I made also tasted pretty weird, it very yeasty and not very much like mandarins, so if i make this kind of soda again I'm definitely going to have to adjust the amount of yeast and juice I put in.
 
I have experimented with various things since buying a Sodastream, although I use it mainly for carbonated water as it's a convenient and cheap way of doing it.

I do like using the various flavoured syrups out there, as I'm a bit too lazy to try making my own most of the time. I have looked up various recipes for homemade cola flavouring and they seem to be a bit more trouble than they're worth.

I'm going to peek at and try some of those recipes, though.
 
So I tried my mandarin soda, it does not taste like oranges unfortunately. The excess yeast completely masked the flavor of the fruit. It basically tastes like really mild beer, but I do find it tasty.

I have experimented with various things since buying a Sodastream, although I use it mainly for carbonated water as it's a convenient and cheap way of doing it.

I do like using the various flavoured syrups out there, as I'm a bit too lazy to try making my own most of the time. I have looked up various recipes for homemade cola flavouring and they seem to be a bit more trouble than they're worth.

I'm going to peek at and try some of those recipes, though.

I don't know much about colas, they seem to have obscure and hard to find ingredients that I don't really care to search for or combine, I'm more into simpler things. Although I am going to start experimenting with root beer soon, to see if I can come up with my own recipe.
 
Hey dawg, can you teach me how to whip up a cool tonic?

Go dig up some dandelions, separate the roots and rinse them off, get them very thoroughly clean. Chop up the roots and put them in a pot of water with some mint leaves and bring it to a boil. When it boils pull it off the heat and let it sit 20 minutes. Strain out the plant mass, add two cups of sugar, then boil it again for 5-10 minutes, and then let it cool. If carbonation is desired, add 1 tea spoon or less of brewers yeast and put into sealed containers for 12-24 hours.

Yo dawg i herd u like tonics so I put tea in yo tea so you can sip while you sip.
 
Great job alienating 2/3rds of North America with your invocation of the pop vs. soda debate.
 
Go dig up some dandelions, separate the roots and rinse them off, get them very thoroughly clean. Chop up the roots and put them in a pot of water with some mint leaves and bring it to a boil. When it boils pull it off the heat and let it sit 20 minutes. Strain out the plant mass, add two cups of sugar, then boil it again for 5-10 minutes, and then let it cool. If carbonation is desired, add 1 tea spoon or less of brewers yeast and put into sealed containers for 12-24 hours.

Yo dawg i herd u like tonics so I put tea in yo tea so you can sip while you sip.

ohyou.jpg
 
FWIW, "Soda" is correct.
All the rest of you are wrong.

Although "Sody Pop" and "Tonic Water" may be acceptable as well
 
FWIW, "Soda" is correct.
All the rest of you are wrong.

Although "Sody Pop" and "Tonic Water" may be acceptable as well

Hmm... I don't know about Sody Pop, it sounds infantile and is a bit hard to say.
 
Whoever did that, you're just being abusive. Please change my title back, or change it to something actually amusing.
 
So after another day, my soda tastes better. It tastes less like yeast, less like beer, but in it new found blandness is strangely delicious.
 
So as an update I shared the orange soda with some people, they did like it. I thought it had lost its flavor, but they said it tasted like oranges still.


I found a can of cranberry sauce, so I'm going to see what that ends up like when I make it into soda. I predict disaster, but I will let you all know.
 
I call it pop, and always will.

So as an update I shared the orange soda with some people, they did like it. I thought it had lost its flavor, but they said it tasted like oranges still.


I found a can of cranberry sauce, so I'm going to see what that ends up like when I make it into soda. I predict disaster, but I will let you all know.

Cranberry as flavor should have potential, but you may be right.

I think it will be a disaster just because it's from a can. If I had cranberries I'm sure I could pull something out of it. Gelled goop will probably act weird while fermenting.

Yeah, it's the canned part that makes me wary as well. Who knows though, guess you'll find out!
 
I call it pop, and always will.



Cranberry as flavor should have potential, but you may be right.
I think it will be a disaster just because it's from a can. If I had cranberries I'm sure I could pull something out of it. Gelled goop will probably act weird while fermenting.
 
Nah, with a Soda Stream I'd have to worry about CO2 tanks and filling little bottles with syrup. I'd have to spend hours boiling stuff down for some flavors. With yeast I just add a pinch of yeast and put it in bottles to ferment. Different challenges for different methods.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom