Sodamancy

Where have I been?

2017-09-01T17:02:00.003-07:00

Well...I'm still lurking around the soda world and trying out new sodas and recipes, I just kind of lost interest in keeping a running blog about it for a long time, and have recently started up a new blog related to my most time-consuming hobby of the last four years- which has been collecting and playing retro video games.
That is probably the biggest culprit in why I stopped maintaining this blog, and I apologize for that. Not because I haven't enjoyed revisiting my past, or finding new gaming experiences, but because it really took away from making homemade soda.
Making homemade soda satisfies my creative side, and helps me feel more like I'm contributing something unique to my family that no one else does. even if it is only a super sweet treat.

I do plan on getting back to blogging about my homemade soda adventures and keeping up on revies and other random soda-related things...but i'll still be spending more time over at my video game blog. If you'd like to check it out, I would really appreciate it, and it can be found at Soda's Fountain Arcade

Review: Boylan Bottling Co. Birch Beer

2017-06-22T00:35:00.001-07:00

I never really know what to expect with a birch beer...because many companies don't really seem to know what exactly a birch beer is supposed to be.
Boylan seems to be another one of those companies.
I enjoyed this standard root beer with a slight hint of birch flavor. It wasn't too sweet, but it was not anything I would go back to buy again.
If you're unfamiliar with birch...think again. It is the primary flavor of old school baseball card package sticks of gum. Yes, THAT gum that "tastes like the bleachers".

Taste- 4/7
A pretty basic root beer, but a little less sweet and just a tiny hint of birch.

Aroma- 2.5/5
It didn't really smell like anything...which was odd, but not exactly unpleasant.

Packaging- 2/5
Boylan has a nice clean uniform labeling system that varies in color based on flavor...but it is also incredibly dull and not eye catching at all.

Overall- 8.5/17
This may have been one of the most mediocre soda's I have ever had, but would have been helped by not touting itself as a Birch Beer.
It'd be like if something was called "vanilla cola", but the vanilla flavor was only evident after you drank the whole bottle and licked your lips.

I'm actually back this time.

2013-09-28T18:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, so...what have I been up to? Well, as I may or may not have mentioned in a previous post, my wife and I bought a house for our family about eighteen months ago(April of 2012, to be exact). As such, we(she, mostly), spent a lot of time converting our overgrown, suburban-y boring lot into a mini-homestead.
We have a small flock of laying hens(ten in number for the time being), two goats for companionship/milk(one a show goat for my eldest daughter), three french Angora rabbits for fiber, three meat rabbits(two creme d'argents, one silver fox), fourteen meat chickens(mixed heritage breed roosters), and about 50,000 bees I caught (with assistance) after they swarmed my neighbor's chimney.
We also have a vegetable patch, an herb garden, and scattered offerings of fruit (multiple apple trees, a pear tree, a plum tree, raspberry, strawberry, blueberry and blackberry). We even have a bed of flowers somewhere around here-even those are used to some extent.
So, in summary, the biggest reason I haven't been updating my blog(or making much, if any, soda), is simply because I have devoted so much time to ensuring our home is what we want it to be. I am looking forward to the day down the road in which I will be able to pick apples from my own front yard to be used for making apple syrup for homemade sodas. Until then, however, I will have to tide myself over with honey harvested from my backyard top-bar hive.

Another reason I put off updating the blog is that when I said I would make more soda is that my youngest child has celiac disease, and it occured to me that my ale yeast might contain barley malt-which would make any resultant soda unsafe for my daughter's consumption. I have yet to figure out whether or not my specific brand is safe, but it is worth noting to any of my gluten-free readers out there that you may have to take that into consideration. I will do my best to ascertain which brands are definitively gluten-free and post a list in the coming future.

Also, I have a tendency to obsess on specific subjects for varying amounts of time. This past April I became very involved in collecting retro video games-specifically seeking out those games which I enjoyed in my childhood and many of the games I missed out on for various reasons growing up. That pursuit took quite a bit of my time as well. However, my loving wife has been chiding me into getting back to making homemade soda knowing the joy it brings me, our children, and my readers. I would like to thank everyone who has hung around and happened upon my site, especially those of you that have left so many encouraging comments. You guys are awesome, and even in spite of my absence the blog has continued to grow in readership, garnering nearly twice as many hits per month as I was receiving when I was fervently updating.

I have some other projects in the works that may or may not come to fruition, but I plan on getting a couple of reviews and at least one recipe up here before I seriously start working on anything else.
I believe I will be relating my honey-harvesting in an upcoming post as well.

Until next time, happy soda-making!

Eos Rising Farm By the way, if you'd like to keep up on the other aspects of my lovely household, my wife's blog can be found there.

I'm back!

2013-04-02T18:04:00.000-07:00

I'm back. My wife has finally motivated me to start blogging and making soda again. She recently bought me plenty of ginger root for me to grate up for both ginger ale and to try out using a ginger-bug to carbonate my sodas instead of yeast. More posts to follow, along with my Sarsaparilla recipe from last year that I never got to...if I can find it again. Cheers!

Memory Lane- Almost Fictional Brands and Tie-ins

2012-06-21T17:58:00.000-07:00

When I was growing up, I remember hearing of two things in passing through mass media, and always thinking that they were fictional products used to avoid copyright/trademark issues(having already asked my parents why there were no brand name products in TV shows/movies). One of those things was Wal-Mart. There wasn't a Wal-Mart for hundreds of miles around me while I was growing up, and it wasn't until I was 17 and Wal-Mart started trying to build inside Toledo city limits that I found out that it was a real, actual store-not just some catch-all generic superstore used for entertainment purposes(like ACME brand everything...).
As hard as it may be to believe for most of you out there that I had never heard of Wal-Mart-consider that I was quite familiar with the Meijer chain of stores, but most of the country has no idea what I'm talking about, unless they're in the midwest.
Anyways, the second brand was Shasta. I had seen and heard about Shasta for years before I finally saw my first can of it. Understand that growing up in Ohio, we didn't need Shasta to step in as the cheap alternative to the major soda cans-our shelves were stocked to the gills with glorious, precious Faygo.
Anyways, what brought Shasta to my market and into my grubby little hands was the Shasta/Nintendo tie-in to go along with the release of Super Mario World. I ended up getting a four pack of 8 oz. cans in Green Apple Yoshi. I really wanted Mario Punch or Princess Cherry, but decided I had already had those sodas and needed to try something new-so I went with green apple and couldn't wait to get home.
Anyways, I remember getting home and cracking open a warm can, and pouring the super-sweet, syrupy goodness into my gaping maw to realize that somehow captured the essence of a jolly rancher in soda form. It was delicious, and a very short lived product, so I was excited when I moved here to Washington state to find Shasta in stores. Of course, my tastes have evolved and I no longer prefer the fake-apple flavor of most mass market sodas, but it was still nice to be taken back to that amazing summer of childhood with that one sip of soda.

Review: Apple Beer

2012-06-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

A few years ago on my ride to work, I stopped into a convenience store to pick up a soda, and seeing as it was a hot summer's day, I wanted something fruity and refreshing instead of a syrupy, caffeine-laden cola. I found Sidral Mundet-a Mexican apple soda. It was crisp, delicious and very refreshing.
This set me off on a whirlwind of seeking out apple sodas. Sadly, I found very few-the aforementioned Sidral Mundet, Jones/Shasta Green Apple, and a little while later Manzanita Sol. While Manzanita Sol is a little more prevalent(being owned by Pepsi), Sidral Mundet was always my favorite. I would drink the occasional Manzanita Sol, especially since the others I found were carbonated versions of Apple candy. Sidral and Manzanita tasted very much like apple cider with fizz. Then, just a scant two weeks ago my amazing wife brought me home das Apple Beer...

...and it was good. Really good. Like, if I took a bottle of apple cider and ran it through a sodastream I'd get Apple Beer. It's light, sweet, tart, crisp and very complex. I imagine that it is brewed using a few different varieties of apples to capture the essence and range of complexity that only befits the source material. Another advantage over Manzanita Sol? Sugar instead of HFCS. I'm sold.

Packaging- 5/5
Come on-look at that bottle. That looks downright delicious. If you were walking through the soda aisle and saw that label, you'd grab that bottle and never think twice about the fact that you're not an apple soda drinker.

Aroma- 5/5
The initial uncapping brings about an aerosolized tart smell-like cutting into a perfectly ripe granny apple.

Taste- 6/7
It tastes exactly like a carbonated version of two or more varieties of apple mixed together. It's oh so subtle, but it's incredibly potent. They didn't allow the sugar/sweet to drown out everything else, and that's what makes this so damn perfect

Overall- 16/17
Great packaging, great smell, fantastic taste. I would highly recommend to everyone-even if you've had a bad experience with apple soda in the past-trust me, you'll like this.

Review: Mason's Root Beer

2012-06-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

My wife was recently on a grocery excursion when this particular bottle of root beer caught her eye, so she purchased aforementioned beverage and brought it home to me.

On the bottle, Mason's proclaims they have a "Keg Brewed Flavor"-which might be true. It is a good root beer, very root beer-esque, if you will, but it seems the keg it was brewed in was mostly already filled with Hires anyways, so they just put that in their own bottle and called it a day.
I don't really think I need to say anything else.

Packaging- 4/5
Ummm...it caught my wife's eye for some reason-yellow label and kegs maybe? I like the vintage look of the non-color Kegs and the basic brown/red on yellow.

Aroma- 4/5
Smells like Hires.

Taste- 5/7
Tastes exactly like Hires. Fake sassafras, a little wintergreen and a smidge of vanilla for creaminess. There's nothing wrong with tasting like Hires, it's one of the best and oldest out there. Nearly every company has made a Hires clone, so it's not really a wonder I stumbled across yet another one. If you've never had Hires and aren't exactly sure what it tastes like, go to the store and buy a bottle of root beer extract-nearly every brand is just a Hires clone. Root beer barrels are also Hires-flavored, even the A&W brand.

Overall- 13/17
It'd rate higher if it were Hire's, but incidentally it's not.

Recipe: Homemade Virgil's Root Beer Clone From Scratch

2012-06-20T17:23:00.001-07:00

I'm going to start off by saying this-I'm quite aware that Virgil's lists the spices they use to flavor the root beer on the packaging, however, they do not list amounts. I decided to give it a try, excluding those spices I find either undesirable(cloves), or those things which I did not have in my ingredients vault(birch of any kind).
I combined all of the below together, and came up with a very close approximation of a tasty bottle of Virgil's.

1 tbsp. Licorice Root
4 crushed Star Anise Pods
1 Cinnamon stick(approx. 4 inches)
1 Vanilla Bean(approx. 6 inches)
1tbsp. dried Wintergreen Leaves
1/4 tsp. ground Nutmeg
5 pieces of whole Allspice
2 cups of Cane Sugar
2 tbsp. Blackstrap Molasses
1/8 tsp. yeast
4.5 qts. of Water

Start off filling your stockpot with 4.5 quarts of water, place all ingredients(minus sugar + yeast) into pot, turn to med-hi heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and allow to simmer with the lid on for approximately 20-30 minutes. Stir in your 2 cups of sugar and molasses, place in ice-water bath to allow to cool.
When the mixture gets down to about 95 degrees Fahrenheit, scoop a little bit into a coffee cup and add yeast to the coffee cup. After allowing yeast to culture for about 5 minutes, dump contents of coffee cup back into pot and stir in well. Bottle and wait 3-4 days(dependent on temperature), then move bottles to the fridge. You'll have a nice, homemade version of Virgil's Root Beer waiting for you. I'd say your best flavor comes about 3 days after placing it in the fridge. The amount of molasses can be modified to taste.
Try it for yourself and let me know in the comments how much/little you think it tastes like Virgil's.

Review: Dad's Blue Cream Soda

2012-06-19T11:29:00.000-07:00

Dad's Blue Cream Soda is the first Dad's product I've tried that was made with (inverted) sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, and I can honestly say that I am not completely impressed or disappointed. Anything blue automatically tastes better then if it were any other color-which makes me grateful Dad's didn't make a clear cream soda...

This soda has blue in spades. If I left a puddle of it on the sidewalk next to windshield wiper fluid, my toddler wouldn't know the difference until the vomiting started. Moving on, however, I will say that this iteration of cream soda isn't bad-it's just completely mediocre. When I was a kid growing up on the wooly streets of the East Side of Toledo, we had a discount grocery story known as Aldi that was frequented by the denizens of my neighborhood. In this particular grocer's stock was a bevvy of generic-brand sodas(some of which I would love to revisit and review), and Dad's Blue Cream Soda tastes exactly like their version of cream soda-which I believe was called Swiss Creme and featured a blue can with white mountains and red writing-which is a strikingly similar design style that you see above.

Taste- 3/7

It's exactly what you expect to find in a cream soda. It's funny that a national brand(that used to be second only to A&W for root beer) seems to have taken a generic formula and added blue food coloring to market a different version of cream soda.

Aroma- 5/5

It smells exactly like fizzy vanilla ice cream.

Packaging- 2/5

Dad's has always had this dated look(it's packaging hasn't changed much since it's inception), and the stark comparisons to be drawn with it's virtual clone leave a bit to be desired. It's exactly like how all Dr. Pepper imitators use the same brick reddish-brown color on their packaging.

Overall- 10/17

I'm surprised at how disappointing Dad's brands have been for me in my adulthood, but maybe that's why it's called Dad's-because it sounds like a special treat from the male parent to his expecting children-Mom's Apple Pie and Dad's Root Beer. Children love it, adults-not so much.

Review: Dad's Old Fashioned Root Beer (Father's Day Special!)

2012-06-17T16:08:00.000-07:00

In honor of father's day, I thought I'd review an old childhood favorite of mine-Dad's Old Fashioned Root Beer.
Growing up I knew there was something that separated Dad's from all of the rest, and I could never quite put my finger on it-there was a very distinct, earthy kind of flavor that reminded me vaguely of something else from my little pocket of the universe.
After having tried dozens of different sodas with various flavoring agents over the years, I've narrowed it down-Dad's is an Old Fashioned style(meaning it uses an artificial Sassafras flavor) root beer-which puts it in the same category as A&W, IBC, and Hires. The distinguishing feature, however, is birch. The first drink immediately calls to mind that other childhood treat-the stick of gum in a pack of baseball cards. I only realized that birch was the source of that "bleacher" taste behind the baseball card gum after purchasing and imbibing my first birch beer.
So, in short, if you equate baseball card gum with dirt or the underside of the bench/bleachers at a baseball game, I'd stay steer clear of Dad's Root Beer or any other Birch Beer. However, if you're like me, there's few better carbonated beverages to crack open and poor into a cool, frosted mug on a hot summer's day.
To all the fathers out there on our special day-I tip my metaphorically frosty mug to you!

Packaging- 3/5
Bright blue label, a yellow square and red-lined block writing. Looks old fashioned, grabs attention, but still incredibly hideous. Much more appealing to the child in me.

Aroma- 3.5/5
Unfortunately, I had a HFCS version of this wonderful soda, so it really just smells like sweetness, only a slight hint of the tasty, delicious root-beery goodness that lie beneath. Maybe I'll have to track down some real sugar Dad's.

Taste- 5.5/7
It's not perfect, but it damn near is. The biggest mark against it is the almost immediate flatness that accompanies the second sip and beyond. The first crack gives a moderate amount of fizz-it's as though they only carbonated enough that it pours with a slight head(as any good root beer needs), but nothing else.

Overall- 12/17
So, how did one of childhood favorites get one of the lowest ratings in my site's history? Well, it loses carbonation too quickly, and a flat root beer is not a great root beer. The flavor is amazing, but not everyone is going to enjoy the birch-sassafras combo when the birch is the overwhelming factor. I still love Dad's, but until I find a sugar version it will remain lowly related. Could also be that the 1 liter Big Daddy Size is horrible on carbonation. We'll see.

Review: Hotlips Pear Soda

2012-06-11T05:06:00.000-07:00

I've always been a pear lover, and realized a long time ago that I had never had or even heard of a pear-flavored soda. Lo and behold, one fateful sunday morning in February of this year I was participating in another hobby of mine(Magic: The Gathering, in case you were wondering), and I came across precisely that which I craved. I was in between rounds and incredibly hungry. I took a three-block walk to a local deli, and looked in there case to find this...

My eyes did not deceive-this was truly a wonder to behold. I plopped down my cash, and ran ecstatically back to my chosen venue, and proceeded to open and imbibe what can only be described as pure, pear-ile bliss.

It was everything a pear soda should be, and rightfully so-they use actual pears in the making of the soda!

Hotlips is actually a pizza parlor in Portland, Or that began brewing their own soda-eventually releasing it the market at large(recently they got a deal with their bottler that brought them into the Philippines!)

Listed on their website is which farms they purchase all of their fruit from. How's that for awesomeness? You usually only know where your ingredients come from if you make your own, so kudos to Hotlips Soda for providing us with that information. Pretty awesome of them if you ask me.

Packaging- 4/5

I like the pears on the label-especially considering the fact that they use REAL fruit to flavor their soda-some bottles reportedly contain fruit pulp.

Aroma- 4.5/5

Smells exactly like liquid pear, but not overwhelmingly so-which makes it much more realistic.

Taste- 6/7

It does suffer from the drawback of having to be pasteurized-something which makes all juice-sodas taste a little too tart/wine like in my opinion, but I can't hold it too much against them that they need shelf life. A great tasting soda, just sweet enough and very refreshing. It was a great compliment to my greek salad pita.

Overall- 14.5/17

An amazing beverage. Highly recommended. I can't wait to try the rest of their line.

Recipe: Homemade Pear Syrup

2012-06-09T12:37:00.000-07:00

I love pears. They're my favorite non-banana fruit, and I love everything about them. The way their bulbous curve fits my hand slightly better then an apple. The sweet, but subtle flavor. Which brings me to the first of my next two posts-I wanted to make my own pear soda. However, I haven't had much time to plan out and brew my planned concoction, so the next best thing was to make some pear syrup and combine it with some club soda and see how it goes.
First, I peeled the skin from an apple and a pear. Then I set 2 cups of water to boil, adding 2 cups of sugar as I went for a basic simple syrup. After dissolving the sugar and getting a good mix in, I threw in the peels and covered, allowing to simmer for about 7 minutes. Took out a few tablespoons and allowed them to cool. I thought it was okay, but my wife tried it and said it was too much sugar and not enough anything else.
To correct this, I took the leftover pear "core"(which was only about half-eaten) from my daughter's post lunch snack and threw it into the pan with the rest of the syrup. I brought the heat back up to a medium high, covered with a lid and let simmer for 10 minutes.
Wow! I'm glad my wife was there with her sugar-repellent taste buds. Taking a sip of this syrup is liking biting into a fire-roasted pear-super sweet and very peary. It even retained the flavor of the peel-which just makes it that much better. I haven't combined it with club soda to try out the soda aspect yet, but it is great on pancakes along with being a very tasty fruit dip.
Next up I'll be reviewing a pear soda from the Pacific Northwest.

Review: Royal Tru-Orange Soda

2012-06-07T03:57:00.000-07:00

On my previous post I had mentioned buying another obscure soda that was of the more classic variety-so here it is. Royal Tru-Orange Soda.

After doing some research(as I tend to do, especially when it concerns foreign-made sodas), I discovered that this drink originated in 1922 in the Philippines and originally included bits of orange pulp-thus the "tru-orange" label. It is also owned by Coca-Cola and features labeling similar to the Fanta line.

A quick check of the label confirms it is bottled with cane sugar, and contains 10% juice. Gives you a bit of viramin C as well. The most interesting thing, however, is that it contains something called "ester gum solids". Whenever you make a soda containing oils for flavoring, you need to include some kind of stabilizer. Most sodas in the United States use brominated vegetable oil-and upon further research I found BVO to be dangerous in large amounts(4-8 liters of soda a day). Ester gum solids are the natural alternative, and much safer. I personally noticed a huge difference in mouth feel.

Anyways, we finally get to what this soda tastes like. In a word-it's orange-tastic(I didn't say it was going to be a real word). This is hands down the best orange soda I've ever had. I would go so far as to say it is an orange soda that even fruit-flavored soda haters would enjoy. It's crisp, refreshing, and the sweetness is perfectly balanced with the sweetness. Most orange sodas leave you with this melted-popsicle syrupy thickness in your throat along with an oily film on your tongue-not so much here. Somebody did a(non-lemon lime) fruit-soda very, very right for once.

Plus, there's more history. Royal Tru-Orange was banned from entering the United States in 2004 by the Food and Drug Administration. While Coca-Cola explained this was due to different labeling procedures, they obviously corrected it well enough that it found it's way into my local asian grocer. Or, then again, maybe not. I may have just reviewed my first bootleg soda(is that even a thing?)

Packaging- 3.5/5

It's uninspired and kind of tacky. Granted, it has to compete with some other pretty bright packaging in the Asian market, so I guess it kind of has to be.

Aroma- 4.5/5

Smells like a freshly-peeled orange. It loses half a point for not doubling as potpouri as a real orange would.

Taste- 6/7

Best orange soda I've ever had. Sweet, tart and slightly sour.

Overall- 14/17

Packaging was meh, but the smell, taste and mouth feel were amazing. The ester gum solids should be an across the board replacement for BVO, which doesn't seem too hard a thing when the E.U. doesn't allow BVO and neither does India.

Review: Sarsi

2012-06-06T00:51:00.000-07:00

My daughter and I decided to stop into a local Asian grocer to kill some time while her sister participated in swim lessons, and after browsing cluttered aisles and overflowing shelves packed to the brim with myriad pre-packaged food products that all appeared to contain seafood of some kind, we finally decided to make our way back to the front to check out the eighties-style display coolers to look for obscure sodas. Boy, did I find one(along with another fruity soda that was a new brand but old favorite, which I will review another time).

I found Sarsi. A short, rather squat bottle with a red-white and blue color scheme reminiscent of two of the three most popular cola brands(Pepsi and Royal Crown), and the sickly-thick brown color to match. I got out to car, and went to open it and take a sip-only to find that it was(unsurprisingly) not a twist-off cap. So, I proceeded to unbuckle myself(safety first!), and my daughter and haul the sodas back inside in search of a bottle opener. I asked the man at the front, whom instructed me that the lady working in the cooler had one. After following my nose to the cooler-which at once reeked of rotting fish and dirty bleach-water, I had freed my beverages from their metallically capped prisons.
I got outside, took a sip, and was floored by an amazing flavor. It was familiar, but I couldn't place it. It wasn't like any other cola(although it had small hints of the background bouqet of China Cola), but it also wasn't like any other one thing I'd had before.
So-research was in order. The bottle let me know this specific one was from Singapore, but upon researching the brand name I learned it is produced in the Phillipines, and is a Sarsaparilla beverage. That explains why I recognized the flavor. I also discovered that Coca-Cola tried to bring down Sarsi's hold on the "root beer" market(not that I'd ever call this a root beer) by releasing Barq's to the area. Lo and behold, Sarsi destroyed Barq's in sales, so Coca-Cola stopped competing- they pulled Barq's from the shelves/restaurants in the Phillipines and simply bought Sarsi. I guess that was one way of doing it. Anyways-onward!

Packaging - 4.5/5
Simple, to the point-but slightly misleading. I was expecting something a little more cola-like in taste based on the colors alone. Don't really know what color it should be, but maybe blue over orange would have been good-Cola Root Beer would have both been evoked and left me with no expectations but no surprises.

Aroma - 3/5
Smelled slightly herbally, and very sweet. Sugar and slightly root beer-esque, but not much so.

Taste - 5.5/7
Tastes good. Sweet, a little tart, some tang to it, and quite drinkable overall. I could drink this to refresh myself, to have something to sip on during the car-ride to work. Strongly preferred over a lot of other drinks-wouldn't consider it a root beer or a cola-maybe something in between.

Overall - 13/17
Really well put together soda. I see why it sold so well and has been distributed across the globe. It's incredibly flavorful without drawing many comparisons.

Status Update: Virgil's Clone and Reviews coming soon.

2012-04-12T17:45:00.000-07:00

I began work on my Virgil's clone tonight, and will be writing up a complete status on the process later tonight/early tomorrow morning.
Also in the works are a few reviews.
Winter is a rough time for me to make soda because we keep our house rather cool, and when we leave for the day to explore and visit(which is often), we turn off all the heat in the house, so any attempts at soda would fall dormant to the cold.
I've made two batches since I restarted two weeks ago(a prototype and a batch of cream soda),
so there will also be an update concerning my prototype.
Come back soon!

Review: Reed's Raspberry Ginger Brew

2012-01-12T02:44:00.000-08:00

Reed's Raspberry Gingerbrew. My lovely wife picked this one up for me at our local co-op, and I can say it is definitely interesting. I have a weird relationship with Reed's ginger brews to begin with-some are too spicy, and the others are a perfect blend of spice, tart and sweet under the right circumstances.

Upon opening the cap, I was awarded with a nice amount of fizz and the pleasant aroma of fruity-ginger. I poured some into a glass for my daughters to try and was surprised by the absolutely gorgeous coloring of this fruity-soda(pictured above).

This was by far one of the most appetizing looking sodas, and could easily be poured into a wine glass and enjoyed at a fancy meal incognito. That's actually an apt description of this brew-it's almost like the wine of the soda world. It's tart, sweet, slightly spicy and very refreshing. It is the perfect balance of it's components(raspberry, ginger and cane sugar), and only a slight hint of carbonation so as not add too much acidity to a berry juice drink.

This is, surprisingly, very reminiscent of carbonated juice drinks, but it is oh so much better in every way. I couldn't drink this every day, but would definitely be a soda of choice at many a meal.

Packaging -5/5

Reed's has this very fun-beer type of labeling to it, and their fun island view coupled with dark purple, magenta and yellow just compliment the coloring of this drink incredibly well.

Aroma -5/5

Smells exactly like it tastes-wonderful.

Taste- 5/7

Amazing. Tart and sweet perfectly balanced, ginger spice and slightly acidic bite. Probably not for the little ones, but a great compliment to a hearty meal. Definitely not something you'd drink a lot of.

Overall- 15/17

I really want to start reviewing more bad sodas, if just so I can bring down my average review score. That, and I find myself to be more interesting when insulting something...oh well-so it is.

Back In the Saddle...

2012-01-05T10:34:00.001-08:00

There've been a variety of reasons I have not been updating the last few months-the two biggest reasons are a broken space bar(which is manipulated by dragging my finger across one tiny contact point in the absence of the actual space bar-which I've become quite proficient at), and because I almost died and spent two weeks in the hospital.
Regardless of all that, I will be back to reviewing making sodas very soon. Hopefully you're all still paying attention, and I'll see you soon.

2011-09-28T17:29:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, I will be back soon for more soda-crafting goodness.

Recipe: Homemade Sarsaparilla Soda from Scratch

2011-09-07T21:10:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered what a "sarsaparilla" is while watching classic cartoons/westerns?
Well, I wanted to know myself. I did manage to try one from a local grocery store(which I will review in the future), but I wasn't satisfied. Why? It tasted too much like root beer to me, and so i decided to make my own Sarsaparilla without using the same ingredients that would be used for root beer(sassafras, licorice root, anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, wintergreen, clove, etc.).
It turned out really well, and this, along with my cream soda, has been my tastiest soda to date.
It's a short list of ingredients, and I'm finding with certain things this is best.

3 tbsp. Sarsaparilla(about 1 oz.)
1x 6 in. Vanilla bean-cut into many small segments
3 Cardamom seed pods
2 cups of sugar
1 tbsp. honey
1/8 tsp. Ale Yeast
1 gallon of water.

Bring 1/2 gallon of water to a boil in a stock pot with Sarsaparilla, vanilla bean and cardamom.
Let simmer about 20 minutes. Stir in the honey, and then remove from heat. Let steep another 20 minutes, covered. Stir in 2 cups of sugar until dissolved, then add 1/2 gallon of water to the brew. Let cool to 90 degrees.
Scoop about a little bit of brew water out into a small glass or coffee mug, add yeast and let sit for 5-10 minutes.
While letting the yeast get to work, strain the brew into another vessel. Add yeast, stir well, and bottle.
Remember to stir your brew as you bottle to ensure the most even distribution of yeast.
Bottle and let sit for about 36 hours(more time for cooler climates, less time for hotter climates).

The resulting brew was sweet, herbal, slightly spiced(from the cardamom), and very refreshing.
My daughters enjoyed the soda quite a bit, and a friend's children also each drank a bottle with no complaints. I didn't strain my batch incredibly well, so I got a few swigs that resulted in root pieces in the mouth, but it's not unlike getting some "tea shake" in your mouth if you're a loose-leaf tea brewer.
Sarsaparilla is entirely different than any root beer you've ever had before, and making it for yourself will allow you to experience it as an entirely new entity separate from it's more popular cousin.
Cheers!
Cheers!

Ingredients: Making your own homemade soda

2011-09-01T05:13:00.000-07:00

So, I recently had a comment on a post requesting tips for someone new to home brewing root beer. This got me to thinking-there aren't too many easily found resources giving you information on levels of ingredients to add to your brews. There are quite a few recipes out there-but they don't explain why certain ingredients are there most of the time, and they definitely don't go into detail as to what levels of certain ingredients you need to use when trying to come up with your own sodas.
I thought I would make a list, and will add to it and modify over time as I do more and more experimenting over time.
Here we go.

Root Beer
Sassafras- 1 oz./ gallon(about 1 tbsp. if just used for a little flavor/color). There are about 3 tbsp. of chopped, dried sassafras root in every ounce, so every gallon batch is going to be about 3 tbsp. I learned the hard way that you'll still get a good flavor, but it'll be far too strong to be continually enjoyable. Too much sassafras results in a cloudy-feeling, over-steeped tea kind of bitterness in the final batch.
Sassafras is the traditional main component to old-fashioned root beers. It imparts a pleasant, familiar taste; it has a good aroma; and it imparts an appetizing and quite beautiful reddish-gold color to the brew. When you think of what root beer tastes like, you're generally picturing sassafras(or, rather, it's artificial facsimile).
Examples: Dad's Old Fashion Root Beer, A&W, Stewart's, Barq's.

Wintergreen- 1 tbsp./gallon(as a main ingredient)(1 tsp. when used as a component). Wintergreen leaves are an odd thing. When you smell them, crush them up, and put them in the brew, they taste nothing like you'd expect. Most of you know wintergreen's signature flavor profile through either Wint-O-Green Lifesavers, Winterfresh gum, or Pepsodent toothpaste. Wait...toothpaste? Yes, toothpaste. I know it seems weird to include an ingredient in your homemade soda that tastes like toothpaste, but there is one specific major-label root beer that utilizes wintergreen's savory goodness-Mug. If you're not a fan of Mug root beer, you shouldn't worry too much about including it.
Examples: Mug(with a bit of cinnamon too)

Sarsaparilla- Same as Sassafras. Sarsaparilla has an entirely different flavor profile. It's bitter but slightly sweet. I would actually put this in the same category as having the same levels of each as raw vanilla-sweet aroma, bitter taste. It is excellent when combined with other things, but is definitely an acquired taste compared to Sassafras and Wintergreen.
Sarsaparilla is almost always specifically called "Sarsaparilla", and as of yet I can't think of any major-brands of root beer that include it as part of a regular root beer's ingredients.

Orange oil, Cinnamon, Vanilla, and clove
I haven't really experimented with cloves or orange oil as of yet, but most root beers that aren't majorly influenced by any of the previous three are usually some variant level of each of these. A lot of store brands use this weird amalgam(sometimes with wintergreen included), and I equate these root beers as having a very earthy, almost dirty taste. I will talk more about
Examples: Big K, Shasta, Faygo

Licorice Root- 2-4 tbsp. for a licorice root beer, 1-3 tsp. as a component. Licorice root is probably not what you're thinking. It's more of a bitter, aromatically sweet tea flavor. Anise provides the flavor most people associate with "licorice"(such as black jelly beans). However, Licorice root is the primary flavoring component of Virgil's, and a small hint can be detected in Barq's.
Example: Virgil's Root Beer.

The rest
You can really make soda out of anything if you try hard enough, but the following is a list of common(and a few not so common ingredients), and the amounts needed to attain the flavor you are looking for.

Vanilla- 12-16 inches(usually 2 beans) vanilla bean/gallon(cream soda); 3-6 in. vanilla bean/gallon(to add a "creamy" sweet finish to other brews. Note, when you are working with vanilla bean, you must cut or split the vanilla bean open and expose the inner part of the plant to actually get any flavor out of it. The longer you steep the bean, the more vanilla is going to come through. I like a nice bite to my cream soda, so I use 2 whole vanilla beans for that purpose. With root beers and anything else I decide to make I only add a little bit.
Example: A&W sparkling vanilla(with 12-16 inches of bean), Thomas Kemper's(with about 8-12 inches and a little bit of honey). Store brands and other cream sodas use varying amounts of extract-which gives an entirely different flavor profile. It's a bit closer to white vanilla ice cream, whereas the vanilla bean is a little closer to the rich, almost buttery cream you get from a french vanilla. I prefer the bean, but extract will work in a pinch-1-3 tsp./gallon should do just fine for those purposes.

Cinnamon- 3-4 inch stick/gallon. This is even a bit too much for a standalone batch, but cinnamon is a great way to enhance a variety of things-from root beer to cola. Actually, the generic cola flavor we are all too familiar with comes from combining cinnamon and vanilla. Note that cinnamon interacts with yeast in a very weird way when it doesn't have other things to offset the bite.
Example- Mug is a very cinnamon heavy root beer.

Raisins- These give a nice fruity kick to whatever it is that you're making, and also are invaluable for bringing clarity to your brew. 1/4 cup per gallon gives a very strong fruity flavor, but I've found for clarity and a little kick you wanna use about 4-8 raisins(chopped) per gallon.

Dried Cranberries- Same as raisins, but it gives a different kick.

Nutmeg- spicy, aromatic, complex. Slice a small sliver from a whole nutmeg or use 1/8tsp. of ground nutmeg per gallon batch and you get a bit of a spicy kick. Great for Root Beer and colas.

Anise- This is the real source of the black jellybean flavor people picture when they hear "licorice" It's also the source of Barq's bite. I love anise, but haven't got to work with star anise yet-but I will be soon. I can, however, tell you that 1 tbsp. of crushed anise seed will give your drink a bit of it's signature flavor and the same bite you'd get in Barq's or Virgil's.

Cardamom- Aromatic and sweet cousin to ginger itself. I have brewed two batches using cardamom and I've learned the hard way that you don't need very much to get it's flavor in your drink. I made a batch with 20 pods, and that was far too spicy. I also made a batch of sarsaparilla containing 3 seed pods, and it was delectable. 3 seed pods/gallon is more then enough, but 1 or 2 for a little spice and up to 5 or 6 if you're a particularly big fan of spicy sodas(like Dr. Pepper or Ginger Brews). This works to flavor cream sodas, colas, ginger ales, and would probably add a nice touch to root beers as well.

Fruit Juices. Fruit juices can give some great flavors and provide a nice bit of acid to your brew. Really the amounts you use are going to vary on what you're looking to make. Do you want a juice-based soda? Minimum is a quart, all the way up to just throwing any extra sugar and spices into a gallon of the juice.
Are you working with lemon and lime juices? 2/3 of a cup for either or both will work just fine. Much more then that and you're looking at incredibly long carbonation times-the acidity level will slow the yeast's progress.

Dried fruits-1/4 cup on up to 1 cup depending on your desired level of flavor from that particular fruit.

Sweeteners
Cane Sugar is the best all-around sweetener. 1.75-2 cups per gallon batch. It's subtle warm hints and overt sweetness will please most imbibers, but too much compared to the strength of the ingredients will overpower their natural flavors. This isn't as big of a problem as it would be with other sweeteners, but it can still happen.

Brown Sugar. About 1.5 cups per gallon. Thick, syrupy molasses-like flavor. Great for root beers and spiced seasonal brews.

Honey. I feel this is best used as an added bonus. It imparts it's own sweetness, flavor and mouth feel to the drink. I would say 1 tbsp. is a great addition to brews with many ingredients, but 1 tsp. should suffice in lighter-flavored brews. If you add honey to a brew, you should reduce the other sugars by an appropriate amount(1/4-1/3 cup less, depending on how much honey). Some people choose to sweeten their soda with only honey. If that happens to be the case, 1 lb. of honey for a varied batch(like root beer), or 3/4 lb. for lighter brews.

I have many more sodas planned for the coming months, and in that time I will work with more and more ingredients, and will have more things to add to this list. Until that time...

Recipe: Homemade Cream Soda from Scratch -Batch 2

2011-08-24T16:54:00.000-07:00

My wife recently requested I make her a soda that she'd actually like. Knowing that she loves cream soda, I made a batch-and it turned out tasting really good. The last batch I made was too much cinnamon, and ended up with a weird off-taste that most batches with cinnamon tend to develop.
I excluded the cinnamon from this recipe and added something else for a little bit of complexity beyond the vanilla alone.

2x 6 inch vanilla beans(cut into many pieces with kitchen shears)
1 pinch of raisins(about 6)-each cut in half by kitchen scissors
1 pinch of dried cranberries(about 6)-each cut in half by kitchen scissors
1 tbsp. honey
2 cups sugar
1 gallon of water
1 dash of ale yeast

Fill a stock pot with 2 quarts of water, place vanilla beans, raisins and dried cranberries into the stock pot. Bring to a simmer on medium-high heat. Let simmer 20 minutes, stirring on occasion.
Add 1 quart of cold water to the brew, letting steep about 10 minutes.
Stir in 1 tbsp of honey, add last quart of water and remove from heat. Let steep another 15 minutes. While steeping for 15 minutes, get your bottles and caps ready. Fill sink with cold water and ice. Not too full, as you'll be placing your stockpot in there to cool the brew.
After the brew has cooled to about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, scoop some into a coffee cup and add the yeast.
Strain the brew into your bottling bucket(or another stock pot). Stir in your yeast and bottle!
I got about ten 12 oz. bottles.
The sample taste I tried before bottling reminded me alot of Thomas Kemper's. It was double-vanilla strength with slight fruitiness. It had a beautiful golden-yellow color-much like honey or ginger ale.

Working on root beer and planning out my clone...

2011-08-22T15:10:00.000-07:00

Making a second batch of root beer using the leftover ingredients from the first batch. Once Sassafras has dried out, it can be re-used. This batch promises to be a bit better, as I recently discovered that I used enough sassafras to make a 3.5-4 gallon batch! That explains the too-strong sassafras flavor I was getting with the last batch, so I dried it out and am in the process of making a second batch that is 2 gallons.
I also made a better caramel color to be added to this batch-it's 1 cup of water and 1 3/4 cups of brown sugar. Brought the mix to a boil and let it go until it started to smell burnt, then reduced heat, constantly stirring to prevent the sugar from baking on to the sauce pan.
Anyways, I've been thinking about what I need to do to make my clone, and think I've got it worked out pretty well. What mass market root beer am I planning on cloning, you ask? The best of the best(in my opinion)-Virgil's. I will also be reviewing Virgil's Root Beer very soon.
Expect that review and the Sarsaparilla recipe shortly-the clone brew will come after I polish off this batch of root beer and the sarsaparilla.

Homemade Old Fashioned Root Beer from Scratch Follow Up

2011-08-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

This has been one of my best brews yet. It carbonated within 24 hours, provided a tasty, refreshing beverage with an excellent head, and it has gone rather quickly.
I will say that the amount of Sassafras is a little excessive-imparted a bit too much of that for the first day of drinking. It's improved with age, but I imagine cutting down the 7 tbsp. to 4 will be more then sufficient. The 7 tbsp. was about 3 oz. I believe, and most "old fashion" recipes only call for an ounce per gallon. Oh well, I wanted a strong sassafras flavor and got it.
In addition to the sassafras, however, I also detect hints of molasses, cinnamon and a slight bit of black licorice. It has a bit of a bite to it-much like Barq's.
Another excellent side effect of this homemade root beer from scratch? The wort left over has made quite the nice potpourri. The mixing cup full of the strained wort still sits in our window sill, and every breeze sends subtle hints of root beer tones floating through our nostrils.
Next up-Sarsaparilla and my attempt to clone an excellent store-bought Root Beer.
Click here for the recipe to this homemade root beer...

Recipe: Homemade Old Fashioned Root Beer From Scratch

2011-08-18T17:27:00.000-07:00

After one root beer experiment, I decided I needed to try to make an old-fashioned style Root Beer. It doesn't use some of the more traditional ingredients(like burdock, or dandelion root, or hops), but it is made with sassafras for that distinct root beer flavor that everyone associates specifically with root beer.
Here goes.

7 tbsp. Sassafras root(chopped and dried)
1 tbsp. wintergreen leaves
1 tbsp. anise seed(crushed)
1 tsp licorice root
1 3 in. Cinnamon stick
1 6 in. vanilla bean
2 cups of cane sugar
1 cup of brown sugar
1.5 gallons of water
1/4 tsp. ale yeast

Fill a stock pot with 1 gallon of water, and a jar(or bottle) with 1/2 gallon of water. Place the 1/2 gallon of water in the refrigerator, and combine all the herbs and spices above in the stock pot. Bring to a simmer, and after about 25 minutes(10 minutes of getting up to heat, 15 minutes to steep). Stir in both sugars, add cold water from the refrigerator, and let cool to under 100 degrees Fahrenheit.(I allowed mine to go to about 85).
Scoop a cup full of brew into a small container, add 1/4 tsp. of yeast, and allow it to work for 5-10 minutes. Strain the brew into another container(brew bucket), then mix in the yeast water. It's ready to bottle.
It's only been about 24 hours since I've made my brew and it's already carbonated-this could be due to the larger amount of yeast or the warmer weather, but fair caution, this might carb up a little more quickly then the other batches have.
There will be a follow up soon enough.

Recipe: Cardamom Cream Soda

2011-08-18T02:08:00.000-07:00

I first tried Cardamom a few years ago in the form of cardamom ice cream, made locally at an ice cream shop in downtown Bellingham, Washington known as "Mallards". It's a rich, aromatic spice that lends itself well to many dishes-meat, stews, sweets and treats. It's also most widely recognized as one of the components in chai tea.
I decided I wanted to try a cardamom-flavored soda, but I think I may have been overly ambitious with the large amount of ingredients. It produced a very good flavor, but I may have let the yeast work a little too long and ended up with a less then sweet, spicy concoction. Flavorful, to be sure, but not at all what it should have been.

20 cardamom seed pods
1/4 cup of raisins(coarsely chopped)
1 6 inch vanilla bean(cut)
1 sliver of nutmeg(probably too much nutmeg)
1 3 inch cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
2 cups of brown sugar
1 gallon of water
1/8 tsp. yeast

Combine all ingredients besides the cream of tartar and sugar(and yeast) in a large stock pot, and let it steep as it comes to a simmer. Let simmer on heat for 10-15 minutes, then remove from heat, stir in sugar and cream of tartar, and let steep for 20 minutes. Add 1/2 gallon of cold water(I've found that making the water cold helps quicken the cooling time), strain the mixture into bottling bucket(or strain into a different large stock pot), and let cool to about 90 degrees.
Meanwhile, activate yeast in a cup of brew that is also around 90 degrees, let sit for 5 minutes, and then stir into brew.
Bottle and let sit for 2-3 days until carbonated.
My first and only tester bottle came open after about 2.5 days, and was sufficiently carbonated-it didn't fizz over the top, and had a nice amount of carbonation to go with the flavor. I detected far too much nutmeg in the initial brew, and it kind of overpowers the rest of the flavors besides the cardamom and raisins.
The flavor is very akin to a hard apple cider without the apples or alcohol. It's very crisp, but spicy at the same time. The raisins added a bit of a fruity tang to the mix, but I think less nutmeg would have done the brew well to help bring out the subtle notes of vanilla that were on the lips afterwards.