Ale yeast = no exploding glass bottles?

Okay, so my first batch of beer is bottled and I am bored. I like the idea of making soda and being able to drink it out of glass bottles. I don't know why. I googled "root beer recipe" and this is the first result: http://www.greydragon.org/library/brewing_root_beer.html. It says that ale yeast, unlike champagne yeast, dies at a certain pressure and will rarely cause explosions. Does anyone here know if that's right?

Also, why does soda need to be fermented before you bottle it?

Um, Hi.

ceanothus said:

Okay, so my first batch of beer is bottled and I am bored. I like the idea of making soda and being able to drink it out of glass bottles. I don't know why. I googled "root beer recipe" and this is the first result: http://www.greydragon.org/library/brewing_root_beer.html. It says that ale yeast, unlike champagne yeast, dies at a certain pressure and will rarely cause explosions. Does anyone here know if that's right?

Also, why does soda need to be fermented before you bottle it?

Um, Hi.

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Sounds sketchy. If this were the case brewers wouldn't get bottle bombs. I would suggest sticking to plastic or kegs.

Soda doesn't need to ferment before you bottle it- I make it for my kids. Well, they're now grown. I used to make it for my kids, I mean! Of course, the bottle carbonation does create a bit of alcohol, but such a tiny bit that the soda is safe for the kids. I don't know the exact amount, but probably as much as in an O'Douls. Maybe .05%?

Ale yeast will eat sugars, and cause bottle bombs if the pressure gets to be too much, just as wine yeast. That's why you shouldn't bottle soda in glass bottles, no matter what kind of yeast you used.

Pressure, as in 10-15 times what a bottle can handle. I can safely say that the majority of the people on the board that had bottle bombs were using ale yeasts.

O.K. that's good to know. Thanks.

The folks at Hop Tech say that Coopers Ale Yeast is WAY less likely to explode because it quits fermenting when you refrigerate it. Is that true????

duganderson said:

The folks at Hop Tech say that Coopers Ale Yeast is WAY less likely to explode because it quits fermenting when you refrigerate it. Is that true????

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Maybe LESS likely, but not UNlikely. Don't put it in glass. You'll get bombs.

duganderson said:

The folks at Hop Tech say that Coopers Ale Yeast is WAY less likely to explode because it quits fermenting when you refrigerate it. Is that true????

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Well, yeast will go dormant if you put them in the fridge. But, when making soda, the only way to know when it is fully carbed is to squeeze the sides and feel the pressure. Well, you can open one too, but then you might waste a bottle. I usually feel the bottles everyday until they are very firm, then I open one, drink it because it's nice and carbed, and put the rest in the fridge to helt carbonation.

You can still get bottle bombs with PET, if you don't get them into the fridge. It's hard to squeeze a glass bottle to see how carbed it is.