New to soda. Is it carbed???

SO I've never made soda but thought it would be a fun project for my son and I. We used 2 used 2 liter bottles. Every recipe I've read says that bottle conditioning takes about 3-4 days and that you check it by squeezing the bottle. My problem is, after 24hrs the bottles are rock hard but there are very few visible bubbles in the soda. How long can I let these go before they blow up? I really don't want these turning into little bombs in my kitchen. If it helps any, here's my recipe.

1 C sugar
.75 C brown sugar
2 Tbsp root beer extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Gal water
.25 tsp Red Star baker's yeast (its all I had)

If it's rock hard, then it should be carbonated. Just like a commercial soda, you can't see the bubbles that are in solution. You only start to see them when you open the bottle.

Don't worry if it's only been 24 hours. Some batches carbonate quicker than others depending on various factors. If it's solidly incompressible, put it in the fridge and open it up after it has chilled for a day or so.

Well it was indeed carbed. Unfortunately it was disgusting. It tasted like carbonated yeast water. No real rootbeer flavor at all. I figure the yeast taste is just from using bread yeast. But why so flavorless? I would think that a whole bottle of extract would be enough for a gallon...???

kyleaubu said:

Well it was indeed carbed. Unfortunately it was disgusting. It tasted like carbonated yeast water. No real rootbeer flavor at all. I figure the yeast taste is just from using bread yeast. But why so flavorless? I would think that a whole bottle of extract would be enough for a gallon...???

Click to expand...

Hmmm- I don't know why would be be flavorless. The bad flavor comes from bread yeast, so grab some red star champagne yeast for next time.

I followed the recipe on the McCormick's extract that we got in the grocery store, and that was our favorite of all the different and more expensive extracts we tried. I think a bottle makes like 5 gallons. You may have too much vanilla there- a teaspoon is a lot in- but I don't know if that would cover up the root beer flavor.

Yeah Im not sure why it was so flavorless... maybe the yeast flavor just covered it up because of how intense it was? I would think that even having the bad yeast taste, you would still be able to taste the rootbeer flavor to extent.. maybe not?