What are your most awesome and interesting soda recipes?

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homebrewbeliever

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Hello all! I'm just getting into making sodas with yeast (I don't have a carbonation system) and am totally overwhelmed with interesting soda ideas! What kind of interesting sodas have you all made that you enjoy? I've been thinking of doing some of the following sodas:
-Rosemary with lemon and lime
-Jalapeño lime and mint
-Lavender, lemon, and mint
-Jalapeño and pineapple
-Mango peach
-Orange, lemon, lime, and cucumber
-Anise and black currant

I would love to make some interesting and delicious sodas that do not use "flavorings," but instead use real fruits and herbs.
 
Some of those sound a bit odd, and the last couple I'd probably drink... but I'd rethink the lavender.

It's apparently becoming a rather trendy ingredient, but lavender oil at least can cause poisoning in some individuals, and pregnant/breastfeeding women are advised to not consume it (topical use and inhaling it in the minute quantities of a fragrance is ok however)
I'm sure using the real thing would be far less concentrated, but that sort of thing bothers me, for the same reason I wouldn't use natural sassafras for the risk of safrole.

Your choice of course.
 
Raenon said:
Some of those sound a bit odd, and the last couple I'd probably drink... but I'd rethink the lavender.

It's apparently becoming a rather trendy ingredient, but lavender oil at least can cause poisoning in some individuals, and pregnant/breastfeeding women are advised to not consume it (topical use and inhaling it in the minute quantities of a fragrance is ok however)
I'm sure using the real thing would be far less concentrated, but that sort of thing bothers me, for the same reason I wouldn't use natural sassafras for the risk of safrole.

Your choice of course.

Although lavender oil is harmful to ingest, plant oils are highly concentrated. The amount of lavender that would go in a bottle of soda would be so minimal, it wouldn't probably even equate to one drop of concentrated lavender oil...
 
My girlfriend got my a park of therapeutic grade essential oils for my birthday and I've been trying to decide which to brew with first. I really agree with the rosemary and lemon-lime combo though.
 
Although lavender oil is harmful to ingest, plant oils are highly concentrated. The amount of lavender that would go in a bottle of soda would be so minimal, it wouldn't probably even equate to one drop of concentrated lavender oil...

And that "probably" in association with a toxin may be enough for you, but I personally would steer clear of it without knowing a lot more.

As I said, it's your choice, I just wanted to share a piece of info so that it's an informed one.
 
Raenon said:
And that "probably" in association with a toxin may be enough for you, but I personally would steer clear of it without knowing a lot more.

As I said, it's your choice, I just wanted to share a piece of info so that it's an informed one.

Okay, but I really just started this thread to get soda recipes and ideas from people, not to debate about whether or not lavender oil is harmful for your health... SO, does anyone have any awesome soda recipes that they've really liked???
 
I made a real nice Ginger Ale from scratch. I used one ginger root grated and boiled for an hour with a cup of honey and a cup of table sugar and added the juce from 1/2 a lemon to make a two gallon batch with 1/2 pack of red star champaign yeast. One gallon I bottled as soda and the other I let ferment for 2 weeks in a primary and then racked into a secondary for 1 week. (I was impatient). I used honey as priming sugar before bottling and added about a cup of Torani's strawberry syrup. My wife likes things sweet so I added a packet of Stevia to each bottle before bottling and then let bottle condition for 2 weeks. I gave two liter bottles to friends as a return favor and had enough for a 6 pack of 12 oz bottles that were gone in a day over memorial day.
 
GFgray said:
I made a real nice Ginger Ale from scratch. I used one ginger root grated and boiled for an hour with a cup of honey and a cup of table sugar and added the juce from 1/2 a lemon to make a two gallon batch with 1/2 pack of red star champaign yeast. One gallon I bottled as soda and the other I let ferment for 2 weeks in a primary and then racked into a secondary for 1 week. (I was impatient). I used honey as priming sugar before bottling and added about a cup of Torani's strawberry syrup. My wife likes things sweet so I added a packet of Stevia to each bottle before bottling and then let bottle condition for 2 weeks. I gave two liter bottles to friends as a return favor and had enough for a 6 pack of 12 oz bottles that were gone in a day over memorial day.

Really??? That sounds fantastic! I've made ginger "ale" (more like soda) with champagne yeast, but actually letting it ferment sounds great! What was the ABV? How did the strawberry compliment the ginger? And, how sweet was the final product?
 
homebrewbeliever said:
Really??? That sounds fantastic! I've made ginger "ale" (more like soda) with champagne yeast, but actually letting it ferment sounds great! What was the ABV? How did the strawberry compliment the ginger? And, how sweet was the final product?

It was fantastic. The ABV was only about 2.5-3% as I didn't add any dextrose and I'm guessing because I added the torani's strawberry syrup balanced it out perfectly. I also added one packet of stevia to each bottle. I just made a 3 gal batch of it with raspberry instead because that what I had. It's great too!
 
GFgray said:
It was fantastic. The ABV was only about 2.5-3% as I didn't add any dextrose and I'm guessing because I added the torani's strawberry syrup balanced it out perfectly. I also added one packet of stevia to each bottle. I just made a 3 gal batch of it with raspberry instead because that what I had. It's great too!

What was the FG of the fermented batch?
 
I've been on the lookout for some soda recipes for my kids. I made a big batch of root beer for them from a recipe that is listed in the recipe section. unfortunately there are not many soda recipes on here and I'm not sure about trusting recipes on other sites. There are root beer, ginger ale and a mellow recipe on this site I believe. Thats about the extent
 
We brewed a batch of Lavender Lemonbalm (from fresh garden plants) and a batch of chocolate mint (brewed chocolate mint leaves and crushed cocoa beans in my simple syrup) this week. The syrups tasted amazing, but I haven't tried them yet since we yeast carbonated them with champagne yeast.
 
I've made grapefruit(awesome with gin)
Orange vanilla, which was ok,
Strawberry, which was a hit with the kids and tasted super fresh
I'm currently waiting for a batch of ginger "ale" which I made with a basket full of ginger, pink pepper corns, lemon, brown sugar and a pinch of chilli flakes


I also make water kefir, which ends up as a healthy version of pop. I've done lime, raspberry, guava(my favorite), pomagranite and mixed berry.

I have all the herbs on order for a batch of root beer, using the recipe from nourished kitchen, which I'm pretty excited about.

I basically put together a base of whatever flavors I feel like trying, make it slightly too sweet, then carbonate and refrigerate.
 
I "brewed" my first ever soda with Wellness Mama website recipe for ginger bug and ginger ale, and I am hooked!
 
Hello! I guess this will be my first post then. I picked up this hobby over the summer and my first batch of Soda was a Strawberry and Basil that was delish.
 
It was very nice. I used half of it to make a caramel sauce for class which was pretty tasty as well.
 
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