minimum amount of sugar for soda brewing ?

Hello all,
My name is Frank.
I'm new to the group and one month into home brewing soda.
I've have good luck using recipes that call for 1-3/4 to 2-1/4 cups of sugar per gallon of brew using both bread yeast and champagne yeast.
This is a bit too sweet for my taste.
I'm wondering how little sugar I can use and still get carbonation ?

Any opinions ?

If this has already been addressed in the form please point me toward the thread. My searches didn't answer my question.

Thanks

It pretty much depends, doesn't it? I think that the yeast will eat as much sugar as possible, leaving behind alcohol and carbon dioxide, depending on how long you leave it.
Lets say that soda is best around 3-4 volumes of CO2/liter, this would mean that about 10 ounces of sugar in 5 gallons could provide all the carbonation necessary (but in order to do so it leave no sweetness at all) So 2 ounces per gallon I'd say is the least amount to acheive desirable carbonation. Unless you want it less carbonated of course.

Agreed, just look at how much sugar is used to carbonate beer.

You'll have no problem using however much (or little) sugar you want to suit your taste.

Thanks for the informative replies.

Kevin said:

"Lets say that soda is best around 3-4 volumes of CO2/liter, ..."

What does this mean ?... or ... where can I learn what this means ?

I'm a novice so please excuse my ignorance.

Thanks,
Frank in AZ

It's a bunch of technical stuff I don't really comprehend, mostly because I haven't spent the time to read it. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/volumes-co2-105955/

I shortcutted because with beer, it seems to give targeted amounts of carbonation by volumes of co2. (basicly, beer A should have 1.5 volumes of co2/liter, and beer B should have 2.5). And there are charts and calculators out on the web and books that say the same thing and will say that you need X amount of sugar to get Y carbonation.
Kinda like this: http://byo.com/resources/carbonation

1) soda generally has higher carbonation than beer (cause people talk about that a lot)
2) looked up what the average soda's carbonation was in measurements of volumes of co2.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f95/volumes-co2-root-beer-75042/
and some other sites I can't find but were fun reads.

I used the byo chart just to look at the high end and went. Eh, I'll say about 4 co2/liter cause that's approximately 10 oz of sugar in 5 gallons, right? Also, I'm not worried about subtracting out existing carbonation. And 10's easy to use to slice up. So 10oz/5 gallon = 2 oz per gallon.

Course, that should create the target carbonation and no sweetness at all when fully fermented.

The links regarding volumes of co2 were interesting.
Thanks.
Can the co2 volume be measured in p.s.i. ?
If so ... is there a simple/cheap gauge I can buy to measure the pressure in a plastic sodabrew bottle ?

If co2 volume can't be measured in p.s.i. ... how do home brewers measure it ?

Thanks,
Frank in AZ

highdesertdreams said:

The links regarding volumes of co2 were interesting.
Thanks.
Can the co2 volume be measured in p.s.i. ?
If so ... is there a simple/cheap gauge I can buy to measure the pressure in a plastic sodabrew bottle ?

If co2 volume can't be measured in p.s.i. ... how do home brewers measure it ?

Thanks,
Frank in AZ

Click to expand...

I keg soda, and I have it set at 30 psi. I don't have a spunding valve or anything like that, since my co2 tank has a regulator.

I don't know how much it costs, but I've seen people talk about using what looks like a regular plastic bottle cap and a tire valve. People use it for pressurizing with a co2 tank sometimes, but they can also use a regular gague (tire gague) to measure the psi.
Couldn't find the link for it.

In Creswell's book, Homemade Root Beer, Soda and Pop (I think that's the title) - he states 4 tablespoons of sugar per gallon will carbonate a soda with artificial sweeteners.

I haven't tried it yet, but plan on giving it a shot. I've got the rootbeer extract on hand, have the ale yeast. Have the sugar. Need to pick up artificial sweeteners (considering Truvia - but the price always scares me away).

callmebruce,

Let us know how or if the 4-tbls-of-sugar-per-gallon works out.

We stayed up late mixing/bottling 9 different one litre batches of sodabrew last night.
I think we may have dramatically shorted one bottle so in a few days I may have some experimental evidence on just how little sugar can be used and still get some fizz.<g>

Stay tuned,

Frank in AZ

In some conversion tables (I use tradtionaloven.com for my conversions for baking), 1 tablespon of sugar is approximately 1/2 oz, and 4 tablespoons is 2 oz. which matches the number I came up with in my information above from other sources, which should target the 4 volumes of co2 per gallon.

Generally speaking though, any amount of sugar will provide some fizz. The question always is how carbonated does a person like it. (I like my root beer REALLY carbonated. Then the big burps of course. It's required in the handbook to have really good burping rootbeer, isn't it?)

As for truvia, truvia is really sweet so the inital cost is for an amount that should give some good usage. We'll have to find the costbreakdown to cost to equal sweetness. Alternatively, you can just grow your own stevia. Mine always gets aphids though so I've not used it in anything.