Hello all,
I've started homebrewing root beer and ginger ale here in South Korea. Both are extremely hard to find, root beer is almost non-existent. Once in awhile there are some import A&W 12 packs, but that's it. Ginger ale only shows up in Canada dry or schweppes, but both inconsistently.
The problem I've had is carbonation.
I'm following this guide:
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/ROOTBEER_Jn0.htm
I managed to get some Zatarains imported here.
The first thing I noticed is that my batch seemed to carbonate very quickly. On the surface. The bottle got extremely hard within a few hours. By the next morning it was almost like a rock. I made two bottles at once. So I tried one when at that point and it wasn't that carbonated. like a bottle of rootbeer that had been open 2-3 days. So I left the other one over night again and tried that (it hadn't been opened at all) and while it was somewhat carbonated, it wasn't anywhere near what we'd like.
Can I expect much more out of home carbonation? I'm using Fleischman's yeast (also had to import that), it's fine though, I use it for baking.
They mention being careful that it doesn't explode, so I'm worried about leaving it the 3-4 days they recommend, because they also indicate giving it a feel test.
1. Am I just being impatient?
2. Can this kind of home brewing generate carbonation on par with commercial sode or do you need a machine for that?
3. Should I double the yeast to give it more of a kick or will that really increase the yeast taste/alcohol content?
Thanks in advance
I've started homebrewing root beer and ginger ale here in South Korea. Both are extremely hard to find, root beer is almost non-existent. Once in awhile there are some import A&W 12 packs, but that's it. Ginger ale only shows up in Canada dry or schweppes, but both inconsistently.
The problem I've had is carbonation.
I'm following this guide:
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/ROOTBEER_Jn0.htm
I managed to get some Zatarains imported here.
The first thing I noticed is that my batch seemed to carbonate very quickly. On the surface. The bottle got extremely hard within a few hours. By the next morning it was almost like a rock. I made two bottles at once. So I tried one when at that point and it wasn't that carbonated. like a bottle of rootbeer that had been open 2-3 days. So I left the other one over night again and tried that (it hadn't been opened at all) and while it was somewhat carbonated, it wasn't anywhere near what we'd like.
Can I expect much more out of home carbonation? I'm using Fleischman's yeast (also had to import that), it's fine though, I use it for baking.
They mention being careful that it doesn't explode, so I'm worried about leaving it the 3-4 days they recommend, because they also indicate giving it a feel test.
1. Am I just being impatient?
2. Can this kind of home brewing generate carbonation on par with commercial sode or do you need a machine for that?
3. Should I double the yeast to give it more of a kick or will that really increase the yeast taste/alcohol content?
Thanks in advance