Adventures in ginger ale part 1

[jwgh]

secritcrush posted a link to this ginger ale recipe by an Ohio biology professor (which includes links to the chemical reactions involved in making ginger ale) recently and yesterday I decided to give it a whirl. I made some modifications based on secritcrush's experiences and also based on personal whims, etc.

She said when she made it it was a bit sweeter than she'd like so I decided to use 3/4 cup sugar instead of half a cup. I also probably used more ginger than the recipe called for, though I didn't really measure it. Finally, I added 1/8 tsp cinnamon, with the idea that it would make it spicier, although as I dumped it in I found myself thinking, "this is probably a mistake." (But at least I didn't throw any pepper flakes in, which I was also considering doing. I probably shouldn't improvise on recipes when it's midnight and I'm low on sleep.)

The recipe says that it should take a day or two for things to ferment sufficiently, but after eight hours the bottle was hard as a rock. This freaked me out a little and I started worrying about explosions (which the recipe also warns about). I put the bottle in a garbage bag (because garbage bags are proof against explosions) and stuck it in the fridge. Around midday today, assuming no mishaps, I'll open the bottle and report back.

I'm not sure why it fermented so quickly. Maybe the yeast I used was particularly active? I used less sugar than called for so I would have expected it to ferment more slowly if anything. But I think secritcrush's batch also fermented more quickly than expected so perhaps yeast technology has changed since 2006.

Some premature thinking about future soda making:

Owning a funnel would have made some things easier and I may invest in one.

I was given a 5-pound jug of honey recently so I may try using some of that next time. Brown sugar also seems like it would be worth trying. Maybe add some vanilla?

Speaking of vanilla, the same gentleman who wrote the ginger ale recipe has a recipe for root beer with modifications for making cream soda, so I might try that as well sometime.

Edit: The ginger ale has been opened. Here, have a video:

Comments

[secritcrush.livejournal.com]

I'll be interested in hearing how it turned out. (And don't forget - open the bottle sloooooowly.)

[jwgh]

Thanks, will do. Actually I'm thinking of opening it in the shower just to be safe. Explosions!

[jwgh]

Though then I couldn't take a video of it easily which might be more important. For science!

[oh6.livejournal.com]

Sounds like reducing the sugar didn't hurt the fermentation any, at least! What kind of yeast did you use - fast-rising yeast or active dry yeast? The former, true to its name, ferments a lot quicker.

[oh6.livejournal.com]

Hmm, actually, further reading of Wikipedia suggests that the difference is mostly just the grain size, so I don't know why it would be all that different if it's thoroughly broken-up in liquid.

[jwgh]

Fleischman's Active Dry Yeast.

[katrinkles.livejournal.com]

wait, but didn't you use more sugar than it called for? isn't 3/4 larger than 1/2?

[jwgh]

I'm not sure why I typed 1/2. The original recipe calls for one cup. :-/