Head retention in soda

I'm trying to get my soda to have some head retention like a good beer. So far, I've basically seen three suggestions on how to accomplish this:

1) Do a partial mash with some wheat or carapils.

2) Add molasses (possibly in the form of brown sugar).

3) Use a commercial heading additive.


I've tried replacing half of the sugar with brown sugar, which seems to help a little, but it's certainly not enough. Perhaps I should use only brown sugar, and maybe add some pure molasses?

How should a partial mash be implemented in soda? I'm thinking I might use the BIAB method for this step: basically make grain tea with 1/4lb of grain per gallon of water, then add the sugar and flavoring, let it cool to room temp, add the yeast and bottle. Is this going to work?

Does anyone know what is in the commercial heading additives? As far as I can tell, it's sometimes just dextrose and gum arabic, or more rarely propylene glycol. Is this actually the case? I can get gum arabic by itself a whole lot cheaper than heading powder. Will this actually work in soda, or only in conjunction with the stuff in beer?

I make naturally carbonated sodas in 1 gallon batches, generally with a tablespoon or so of extract, 2 cups of sugar, and three tablespoons of maltodextrine.

I commercially se my homemade soda. After carbonation prior to bottling I boil 1 liter of water and dissolve 4 cups maltodextrine.

It may be overkill but i regularly sell 200 bottles on a cold day at our saturday farmers market.

Methocel is made by dupont that I use in my beer

4 cups of maltodextrine?! I assume that's for a 5 gallon batch? That comes out to 12.8 tablespoons per gallon. I might have to try that. Does it actually cause some head retention, or just give the soda a lot of body?

I did try a partial mash with some wheat and a bit of Quaker oatmeal for a batch of root beer the other day. I even boiled a small quantity of hops in it for a few minutes. It's still carbonating, so we'll see how it goes. It does seem to be carbonating a lot faster than normal.

Okay, the partial-mash root beer is done. It didn't help at all for head retention, but it is a flippin' amazing batch of root beer as far as flavor and body goes. I'll try using a larger quantity of wheat or carapils sometime next week.

Not much interest in soda head retention, eh? I was hoping *somebody* would have *something* to say about it.

Well, I tried a more substantial partial mash with 8oz of flaked wheat and 4oz each of flaked oats and carapils mashed for 45 minutes at 160F for a gallon of root beer. I also used all brown sugar, and added some molasses and 7 Tbsp of malto dextrine. The result was odd malty-tasting root beer with absolutely no head retention. I figured using the grains that improve head retention in beer, in about the same quantity as used in beer, would give some head retention in soda as well. It did not.

So far I have made basically no progress whatsoever in getting soda to have head retention. How does this work?

I believe maltodextrin should work just fine. I've thought of adding a small amount of whey protein, protein is a good foam stabilizer. If I ever get around to trying it, I'll let you know.

Brew-medic - Dupont's Methocel is methylcellulose, not maltodextrin. I'm not sure how that's working for head retention, as it works best in hot water.
I am curious, though, how are you selling your homemade soda?

Yes, I am. Maltodextrine is what we currently use.

we sell at local farmers markets etc as a organic soda, with 9 Cal.

Not to delve into all your trade secrets, but...

Organic soda with only 9 calories? Is that even possible if you're adding maltodextrin? What are you using as a sweetener?

What kind of permits do you have to get? Is this USDA certified organic, or just to the best of your knowledge it's organic?

MrFoodScientist said:

Not to delve into all your trade secrets, but...

Organic soda with only 9 calories? Is that even possible if you're adding maltodextrin? What are you using as a sweetener?

What kind of permits do you have to get? Is this USDA certified organic, or just to the best of your knowledge it's organic?

Click to expand...

He's in Canada so organic regulations might be different there. Eitherway I'm also intrigued as a food safety biotech major how you have organic soda at 9 calories with MD added.

Maltodextrin contains 4 calories per gram. At your rate of 12.8 Tbps per gallon, that comes out to approximately 13.5 grams of MD per 12oz bottle. That's 54 calories of maltodextrin. 54 is more than 9.

Hazarmaveth said:

Maltodextrin contains 4 calories per gram. At your rate of 12.8 Tbps per gallon, that comes out to approximately 13.5 grams of MD per 12oz bottle. That's 54 calories of maltodextrin. 54 is more than 9.

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He may be using a version of ADM's non-digestable malto-dextrine. A form of it is used in many diet sodas and probably non diet even.

We are in Canada, and because we are selling privately, we do not need to list our ingredients, however, I will say this, most of our ingredients, IE sasparilla, is grown in our commercial greenhouse. As for sweetner we use about a teaspoon of sucrose, little malto dextrine just for mouth feel.

MrFoodScientist said:

Not to delve into all your trade secrets, but...

Organic soda with only 9 calories? Is that even possible if you're adding maltodextrin? What are you using as a sweetener?

What kind of permits do you have to get? Is this USDA certified organic, or just to the best of your knowledge it's organic?

Click to expand...

Yazee

smokinghole said:

He may be using a version of ADM's non-digestable malto-dextrine. A form of it is used in many diet sodas and probably non diet even.

Click to expand...

Alright, I'm having a hard time imagining a batch size in which a teaspoon of sucrose would be adequate for sweetness, and four cups of maltodextrin would make for less than gelatinous mouthfeel. In fact, a teaspoon of sucrose per 12oz bottle would be far less than adequate to my taste. Some disambiguation in the batch size that you refer to would be nice.

Back on topic, has anybody ever made a soda that actually had head retention without using a commercial additive? I would very much like to know how it's done, and the additive is bloody expensive.

Ok, Ill tilt my hand a little, we use a plant known as Synsepalum dulcificum

Hazarmaveth said:

Back on topic, has anybody ever made a soda that actually had head retention without using a commercial additive? I would very much like to know how it's done, and the additive is bloody expensive.

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I haven't tried this yet (I plan to tonight), but I read on one of the soda-extract mfg sites to use non-dairy creamer as a heading agent. I think about a cup per 5 gallons. This was specifically for root beer - I imagine it would ruin clarity in a lighter colored soda. He said he's even had success using flavored (i.e., vanilla) creamer in root beer. I'd never do that since I always use whole vanilla beans, but it sounded interesting.


MrH

Thanks MrH, please let me know how it goes.

Brew-medic said:

Ok, Ill tilt my hand a little, we use a plant known as Synsepalum dulcificum

Click to expand...

Interesting. I have been growing one for a little while and hope to get some fruit soon.

I'd be interested how everyone turned out in their experiments in this?

IIRC dosen't flaked corn increase head retention in beer? Meyhap a corn mash preperation of the water before blending in (or included in the recipe if starting from scratch) would help.