Here goes nothing....

I did a small batch of soda tonight for the first time. Mixed it up, did 1 plastic "test" bottle and then got a little insane, put the rest of the soda in Grolsch bottles. I figured it is either going to work or it is not. Someone had to try it, so we will soon see if it will work or not. Going to set the bottles in a cooler just in case something crazy happens. Will keep you posted

Bang!

That sounds like a fine plan to me. I'll be doing the same later this week or this weekend. Glass bottles. An old bottle capper. Probably do a plastic bottle as well - that's a good idea.

The cooler has no ice or anything, right? It's just to contain soda in case a bottle breaks?

What kind of soda are you making?

Nope, no ice, just a vault of sorts, lol. I made a batch of Birch Beer.

Are you doing birch beer from an extract, or from scratch? I'm trying to decide between extract versus scratch for the first try. And birch beer can be tasty!

Went with an extract, figured it would be easier for a rookie like me to do.

What brand did you use? And let me know how it goes. I did a similar process for rootbeer, and my son and I just finished bottling and cleaning up.

Used Old Time Home Brew brand for the Birch Beer, and Gnome for the Cream Soda my oldest and I did Last night. I also switched yeast for the cream soda and it seems to be carbonating a little quicker than the last batch. I also picked up the book "Homemade Root Beer, Soda and Pop" by Cresswell that douganderson Recommended. Great book with a lot of great tips. I Highly recommend it. It eliminates a TON of guesswork as well as debunks a TON of myths with soda. It is a must read for any Soda person. The Ginger Lager Recipe looks interesting. I am going to try it when we empty a few of these bottles, LOL. Well, I think its about time to make some blueberry soda from scratch....Have a good one. What did you use as far as extract? How's it turning out? The Birch Beer is awesome!!!

I picked up the "Homemade Root Beer, Soda and Pop" book, but wasn't sure about making rootbeer from scratch. Wasn't quite comfortable with sassafras (for me, I have no concerns. Not sure about my kids, though). I did head out yesterday and picked up supplies to make ginger ale and cream soda (might not have enough vanilla bean, I'll need to double check - that stuff is expensive!). Haven't decided which one to make next.

For the first go, I figured I'd use an extract to simplify things. I saw a recipe on here that I used, so can't claim it as mine. I used 1 gallon water, 1 cup sugar, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1.5 T rootbeer extract (I used McCormick). 1/2 t vanilla extract. I warmed it up to dissolve the sugar, then tasted it. It seemed bland and weak, so I added another 1/2 T root beer extract, another 1/2 t vanilla and a little bit of honey. Seemed a little better (I should try a different extract).

I put 1/8 t brewers yeast in a 1/4 cup of lukewarm water to get it started, then put the rootbeer mix in a 1 gallon glass jug. I popped the yeast mixture in, capped the bottle and shook it gently. After letting it sit for 15 minutes, I bottled it. 1 12 oz plastic bottle and 10 12 oz glass bottles. They're sitting in a cooler now. (I took your idea!). Tonight will be 48 hours and the plastic bottle is getting firmer. Not sure if I need to let it go for 72 hours, or if I'll put ice in the cooler in the morning.

Hoping it tastes good! We have plans to ice the root beer mugs and do it up right!

That's awesome!!! I haven't tried anything from scratch yet, but I will be trying the Blueberry Soda from scratch. I gotta try it, I traded some meat chickens for blueberries so I have a ton of them. As far as vanilla beans I know what your saying, they are crazy expensive, But I will say they will be worth it in Root beer, That flavor is going to make it awesome.

Good luck with the blueberries, I'm sure they'll be great!

I had some blackraspberries and an old cook book series from Time Life. One of the books is on drinks. So I tried their instructions for making a fruit syrup. I cheated a little (used a blender). I put the blackraspberries in a blender and mixed them. Then put them through a sieve. Then measured and put in a pan and cooked them, mixing two cups of sugar per one cup of fruit syrup.

After cooling, I mixed a couple tablespoons of blackraspberry/sugar syrup with a glass of cold seltzer. It was good! My youngest son really liked the blackraspberry soda, and it was gone quickly.

I figured I'd try it with strawberries. Same deal. Popped 'em in the blender, sieved 'em, put 'em in a pot with a 1 cup strawberry juice to two cups sugar ratio. Cooked it into a syrup. Put a couple tablespoons in a tall glass and added seltzer for a strawberry soda. It was okay, not as good as the blackraspberry.

I then read about strawberry ice cream sodas, so thought I'd try it. I put two tablespoons of strawberry syrup in the bottom of a tall glass. Then a scoop of good vanilla ice cream. Then more strawberry syrup. Then another scoop of ice cream. Then I poured in cold seltzer. I mixed it a little bit with a tall spoon, and it was great!

So - save some of that blueberry syrup for making a blueberry ice cream soda. I bet it would be great.