Bottling - Ginger Ale

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bjd09

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Thinking of making some ginger ale for underage folks and non-alcohol drinking people for an event in a few months. I've seen a few recipes and looks easy to make, but bottling seems to be an (explosive) issue...

Has anyone bottled ginger ale? Any tips would be fantastic. I suppose I could put it in plastic bottles, but that would look a little tacky and I really want individual bottles.
 
MrFoodScientist is right that your best option besides plastic is to force carb and counter pressure fill. However, if you don't have access to that I have a friend who bottles a few ginger ales in plastic bottles with the majority going into glass. The plastic bottles are indicators for when the glass ones are sufficiently carbonated. This is obviously not the ideal method but can work if you're careful.
 
Unfortunately I don't have the equipment to force carb. Thanks apalke, maybe I'll try to glass/plastic method.
 
Another option that I've seen is to carbonate in plastic 2-liter bottles and then carefully transfer to swing top bottles.

Emma Christensen's book explains the process, not that there's much to it, though.

With a force carbed soda you do lose a little carbonation in transferring from plastic or keg to glass, but with fermented sodas it continues to build pressure, so it's constantly replenishing any lost carbonation.

Basically you allow it to ferment and build pressure at room temperature in plastic, then refrigerate for 24 hours, then carefully transfer the cold soda to glass, seal, and refrigerate again, the pressure slowly builds back up to where it was. It creates a bit more alcohol that way, but it's still more or less negligible.
 
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