Easy Rootber using Soda Stream & Rainbow Extract

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jjward101

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I was playing around with our soda stream, and rainbow root beer extract. Since i have ssen a few threads on here with people curious about this particular topic, i figured i would let you guys know what seems to work, and gives a darn good finished product root beer.

NO BREWING NECESSARY for this recipe.

Fill the soda stream bottle to
the line, and then add 1 TSP of extract. Shake well (After you put the lid on).
Force carb the mixture as you normally would with a soda stream, them making sure you are over top of the kitchen sink, add 3 TSP of table sugar to it. You will instantly notice a major gusher forming, so get ready to cap it pretty quickly after you add the sugar. Immediately refrigerate for 1 to 3 hours.

This had the wife and kids all giddy. Goes well with ice cream.
 
shouldn't you carbonate first, then add the extract? That's how I do it with the regular sodastream mixes. It gushes, but if you tilt the bottle and pour the syrup in slowly, it doesn't make a mess. A friend of mine tried to carbonate OJ once, and said it exploded all over the place.
 
shouldn't you carbonate first, then add the extract? That's how I do it with the regular sodastream mixes. It gushes, but if you tilt the bottle and pour the syrup in slowly, it doesn't make a mess. A friend of mine tried to carbonate OJ once, and said it exploded all over the place.


My process is carbonate the water, decant about third of the just made seltzer to another container, add 4.3 oz of cane sugar to the bottle, add the extract and then fill the bottle with the reserved seltzer up to the 1 liter line.

If you have a blender like a Vitamix, blend the sugar until super fine before adding to the bottle.

Addendum:

To make one liter:

4.3 oz or 122 g of cane sugar (super fine if possible)
0.8 teaspoon or 4 ml of extract (using syringe with large gauge luer lock blunt needle)
top up with reserved seltzer water to one liter line
carefully shake until blended

To improve flow of extract, the bottle should be placed in warm water for a few minutes while making sure that water line is below bottle cap.

Since the extract bottles make 4 gallons, it should then also make 15 one liter bottles using the recipe above
 
I think it helps to make syrup from the sugar first. Then when you add the sugar, you are pouring in a liquid instead of a powder, and I think that triggers foaming less. You can also drink it sooner with less shaking needed because it's easier to dissolve.

To make "simple syrup" just mix equal parts of sugar and water, and heat until it's dissolved. You can do that in a glass jar in the microwave (microwave with the lid off), and then store that jar in the fridge to use for making various sodas. You can also vary the concentration-- with more water it is easier to mix in with the cold seltzer. If you are always using it to make root beer, you can also mix the flavor extract into the syrup, and keep that mix in the fridge ready to go.
 
That's the ideal, making a syrup using the full 2 oz. extract bottle. The ratio of water and sugar would result in approximately 2 liters of syrup or 133 ml of syrup per one liter bottle. To store the syrup in a 1/2 gallon jug, the syrup would have to be reduced to 1.9 liters where 126 ml of syrup would be used to make a one liter bottle.

I will try this out today and report back.
 
My half gallon jug that I bought at my LHBS holds 2 liters, YMMV. I had to take in account that the extract bottle holds about 60 ml.

So, make a simple syrup mixture using 8 cups of sugar to arrive at a volume of 1890 ml. Add the 60 ml of extract to jug. Completely rinse out extract bottle using hot simple syrup mixture and add to the jug. Add simple syrup to jug and stop to mix bottle two or three times before jug is filled.

The jug should contain 1950 ml of soda syrup. It should make 15 liters of soda. For each one liter bottle, use 130 ml of syrup.

On the Sodastream bottle, I used a sharpie to mark the 870 ml water fill line. On the Sodastream bottles, the higher of the two indented ring lines near the top is the one liter line. After 870 ml of seltzer is prepared, the soda syrup can be added until the volume rises to the one liter line.
 
I made another batch. I used a 5 liter jug to determine how much water to add to the sugar to arrive at 1890 ml before adding the extract.

Add 640 ml of water to the 4 lbs of sugar to get the 1950 ml of soda syrup once the extract is added at the end in the half gallon jug.
 
i received the Sodastream sparkling natural cola and root beer. The cap holds 120 ml. A serving of the natural soda contains 26 g of sugar. To use this cap in the future and have the same sugar content per serving, a batch of syrup would total 1800 ml comprising 60 ml of extract, 1560 g (3.44 lbs) of sugar plus enough clean water to top up to 1800 ml to make 15 liters.

i will figure out the top up water amount this weekend.
 
Did anyone figure out the ratios for this - I too have a SodaStream and I do not like the SodaStream brand root beer mix. I bought a bottle of Rainbow Root Beer extract from my LHBS and I followed the "quick mix and drink" recipe by using carbonated water from my SodaStream and added the 1/4 tsp of extract to 2 TBSP of honey and it was "ok". Nothing to write home about. Truth be told I am a Barq's addict (mostly Diet) but I want to get away from the Aspertame they put in it (I could have sworn they used Splenda, but when looking at the ingredients recently I was unpleasantly surprised).

Anyway, I want to make a syrup that I can just pour into my 1L bottle of carbonated water just like you do with the SodaStream brand syrups. But, I don't want to have 5 gallons of the stuff sitting in the fridge. All the recipes I've seen so far here on the forums are for people mixing it in kegs and then force carbonating - I don't have the equipment or space for that. So, what if I wanted just 1L to 1/2 gal of the syrup in the fridge to add as I want to soda water? So, do I just make a simple syrup that equals 1L (so like what?, 2c sugar (or Splenda or honey) to 2c water) and then add 1 Tbsp of extract? Does that sound about right?

I want my root beer to taste as close to Barq's (gotta have that bite) as I can get it, but I really don't want to mess with the fermenting business, nor do I want to make my own syrup using the herb mixtures/recipes I've seen, I cannot get a lot of those ingredients (barks, roots, and the like) locally. I don't want to waste a whole bunch of extract and sugar experimenting on undrinkable swill, because that does add up and because I have to drive an hour to get to a shop that carries the extract (the one drawback to living in BFE), not to mention that is snowing a blizzard outside, so not driving anywhere anytime soon, heh. So, I'd like to get it right with as little experimentation as possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated! :mug:
 
I followed this recipe but added hops, wintergreen root, dandelion, some vanilla, and used anise extract. It didn't even fill up a plastic koolaid container in my fridge. When I use the sodastream I just tilt and carefully pour my syrup into the bottle a little at a time until im satisfied it has enough, cap and drink. Gets a nice head on it when poured too.

http://honest-food.net/2010/07/04/sassafras-and-homemade-root-beer/

I liked how the first batch turned out but I already have ideas for changes for the next.
 
@moosedawg71
I just bought a sodastream for my daughter and am new to the forum as well :) BUT I wanted to chime in - I have been doing research on making my own soda syrups and have found quite a few sites that say add 1 to 1-1/2 tsp extract to simple syrup (made with 1 c water and 1 c sugar) - now that is for vanilla syrup so it may vary a bit for root beer but it IS a starting point.

Also, a google books search (searched for "simple syrup extract soda") found old soda shop recipes and it seems like 1-2 drams of extract per pint of syrup is the common ratio for various extracts (1 dram=.125 fluid oz= 3/4 tsp (approx.)) which is about the same as the above amount.

Around 2 Tbsp syrup for a liter is what I'm starting with.

Hope this helps :mug:

Jess
 
Might I suggest making your own combo concentrate and syrup? Its way fun (I'm a noob myself) and super easy. Take 4 cups of water and add various roots (sassafras, wintergreen, anise, etc) and cook for a few minutes and strain. Then return to the stove and add equal amounts suger and wala, syrup for your soda stream. I'm totally hooked!
 
Experimenting with HomeBrew brand extracts, I've found using 2.5 cups of simple syrup to 2 oz of extract produces a syrup about the same concentration as SodaStream's syrups. 50ml of this syrup per 1 liter bottle. I use 1.25 cups of Splenda Blend (half sugar/half splenda) to 2.5 cups of water to make my simple syrup but 2.5 cups of sugar would work just as well.

This makes enough for 15 liters of soda (very close to the promised 4 gallons!), so if you want to use the SodaStream syrup containers, you'll have to reserve 150ml (about 2/3 cup) or make 3 bottles before putting it in the SodaStream bottle.

LasVegas
 
Thanks for the information, I shall try some of these suggestions and see what I come up with. One thing we tried was doctoring up the Sodastream rootbeer mix, I put in the mix as per instructions, then add about 6-10 drops of the extract and that will give it a better flavor than the mix alone, so better than nothing, but I will fiddle around some more. Thanks again though - keep the suggestions coming! :mug:
 
I've used the Rainbow flavoring in a keg (forced CO2 carbonation) with additional vanilla, table sugar, and brown sugar. This is what I did for 4 gallons:
1 bottle Rainbow Flavors Rootbeer Extract
4 gals of tap water
2 lb bag of brown sugar
6 cups table sugar
2 tsp real vanilla extract

Family loves it.
 

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