ChshreCat

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I was brewing recently and since I brew sober, I had a can of pop that I was drinking. Well, I went to take a drink after handling the hops and just as I was taking a sip, the hop aroma from my fingers hit my nose and the combination surprised me...in a good way!

Anyone think of making some sort of a hopped soda? What would you put in it if you were to give it a shot? I was drinking a cola at the time and it was either cascades or amarillo hops I was smelling, but the combination worked.

Tell me I'm not crazy for thinking about doing this!

KevinM

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You're crazy for thinking about doing this. Would a sane person think of it? No! But sane people are boring and don't try new and different things.

I was considering just some other herbs to practice with soda (lemon verbena, mint, rosemary). I'm not a big fan of hops, but I can see the attraction. Just hops and sugar? What kind of hops do you think would work?

hops & ginger ale?
hops & lemon
I wonder if what it was with the cola was the caramel & citric acid parts that triggered it or something else.

Considering hops and vodka to extract rather than a boil due to bitterness, but perhaps a quick water and hops solution could work, just as a tea to pull out the aroma and flavor. I then think of Hopquila (A hopped whiskey that I got to sample up by Traverse City). So I don't think it's too bad of an idea to do a hop based soda. Maybe even replace some citrus with the hops.

ChshreCat

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I'm really not sure! Hopped cola might work. I wouldn't want it overly sweet. It was a diet cola I was drinking and the aroma just mixed really well with it.

KevinM

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So based on Chshre's idea, I just tossed 10 grams of Columbus hops into a quart of hot water, let it steep, strained and bottled. 10-30 ibu maybe? It's just what I had on hand and I didn't bother trying to figure out the IBUs.
I used some of it to try to mix with my peppermint tea. That was a mistake, it was way too bitter, no matter how much I poured out and replaced with plain peppermint "tea"
Just decanted, leaving some sediment behind and carbonated. It doesn't taste too bad plain.
I don't have too good of a setup to do a comparative taste test, but I have two syrups made using Rainbow soda extracts (cola and rootbeer). I don't think I liked it all that much in either of those, but some ginger/citrus flavor is floating around so I could be getting some off notes from that. I had some metallic overtones.
It does seem to pair up nicely to the ginger soda syrup though. Something about the spiciness of ginger, the sweetness of the turbinado sugar and the bitterness of the hops. If I try again, I'd reduce the amount of hops, or try different hops and then do a comparison test between the carbonated hop water and carbonated water with different syrups.

bengerman

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they actually do this in sweden, as a christmas drink. it's called Julmust and Wikipedia happens to have a page about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julmust

kyleaubu

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I've actually been thinking of experimenting with some thin like that. You're not crazy. Ill let you know how it turns out. Im going to start with Cola and Cascades.

kyleaubu

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Ok so last night I tossed two pellets (0.525 grams) of Liberty hops in a 16oz shasta cola bottle and let it sit overnight. AMAZING!!! The only problem I had is that i couldnt strain off ALL of the hops so it had a slightly bitter after taste. Im going to assume that this is because of the little pieces of hops stuck to the back of my tongue. I am definitely going tho do this large scale. Im thinkin 5 gallons of cola on an ounce of hops in a hop bag for about 24hrs, siphon and bottle.

KevinM

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Sounds good, kind of a dry hop for aroma and flavor? I don't think I liked the hop tea all that much, but then, it was pretty bitter.

dinnerstick

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lightly hopped ginger beer? could be good, could be vile... might have a bash at it

Clann

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[Quote]"since I brew sober"

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