Recent content by Kayvon

Carbonating root beer with dry ice is a common picnic party activity. I've seen it done a lot. It's not nearly as efficient as other methods, but it's fun and easy.

True enough. Let me amend my statement: Put the soda in the refrigerator after it carbonates to prevent the yeast from turning all your sugar into alcohol. Then drink all of it. Seriously though, refrigeration merely slows it down substantially (even AB recommends releasing the pressure...

It's been discussed elsewhere on this forum, though I can't find it off hand. Basically, the yeast doesn't need all that much sugar to create the CO2 needed for carbonation. If you'll notice, recipes for forced carbonation (which consumes no sugar) and yeast carbonation (which consumes a small...

No, UV will largely penetrate the clear plastic bottles. It's simply more effective to introduce the UV directly to the water in Steripen's case. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_water_disinfection for an example. However, I don't know how well this will work on your yeast. If you...

Yeast won't eat much of the sugar at all. Bear in mind that AB's recipe is pretty light on sugar and a little ginger goes a long way. Try it again with much more syrup or less water.

I'm guessing it's either used for sugar inversion (added during heating with the sugar) or as an acidic method of adding some head to the root beer.

I have seen a study on this, but it's been a while I can no longer find it. Plain water should be fine with brass fittings. Modern brass plumbing fixtures contain a minimum amount of lead that's not easily absorbed into water. Carbonated water is another story. It's acidic (carbonic acid), as...

Virgil's make a Dr. Better soda that contains "a touch of prune juice" (ingredient is listed just after phosphoric acid, so I'm not expecting much of it). Dr. Better is the only soda I've found that resembles Dr. Pepper. In fact, it's maybe a little better give it a try. That said, I've had...

I know this thread is over 4 years old, but... It just so happens that I made cinnamon soda over the weekend (before I saw this thread). I used three good-sized cinnamon sticks and a touch of nutmeg in a liter of water, boiled and steeped that for a long while, then chilled it overnight. Made...

Thanks for the suggestion. Never even heard of potassium metabisulphite before today. I'll consider picking some up if the low-temp pasteurization doesn't work. I don't want to batch pasteurize (pre-carbonation) in case the dry ice itself is providing the bacteria, as seems to be the case.

Next time you refill, you might try weighing the (completely empty) paintball CO2 cylinder both before and after filling. I believe they're only rater for 12 oz. or 20 oz., depending on the cylinder.

I'll tackle the only question I can answer with any certainty. If you're using vanilla extract, that's the way to go as it will prevent the flavored alcohol from evaporating during brewing. In the extract, all of the flavor ends up in the alcohol (which is why the FDA mandates a minimum...

Good info, Dutchman. I hadn't even considered the dry ice itself. I'll try the low-temp pasteurization on a few bottles next time I make some soda. Thanks for all the feedback, everyone.

We have canning equipment that could easily fit 2-liter-size bottles. The question is how much pressure would build up in the bottles during the process. I may be able to experiment with a regulator cap to approximate safe temperature for pasteurizing. The cider side of the forums are showing...

Yes, I should have clarified. The carbonation process works beautifully and tastes great when initially bottled. The problem isn't that everything fizzes out, it's that the flavor is incredibly bad. The wife walked in the kitchen and immediately asked what had fermented. It's similar to when...