Can You Use Fresh Fruit to Make Soda Pop?

[ms8miranda]

Everything I can find about making soda pop involves using flavoring. I would love to be able to make soda pop with my fresh fruit. Does anyone know if it can be done? If so, where can I find instructions on making this?

 

[Revvy]

Good question...I bumped it to see if someone with experience notices....Here's some info I found online though.

ye olde fashioned ginger beer recipe and the theory of homemade soda « space wildschwein | food, drink, life

 

[Brew-Happy]

No experience here, but some thoughts on this.

This should be similar to making a jam or jelly, only no gelatin.

Theory 1. Process fruit in blender or chopper. Heat water to below the temp that causes pectin to be removed from fruit. Steep for some time (30min?) then strain very well.

Theory 2. Process fruit in blender or chopper. Put fruit in boiling water for at least 10mins. Strain very well and boil remaining liquid until reduced to a syrup. Use the syrup to make the soda. Will need pectin enzyme to drop haze issue. This syrup could be stored for some time in fridge and used when soda runs out.

Please pick these ideas apart. This could be the start of some fun soda making. Especially with local wild berries and such.

 

[Revvy]

No experience here, but some thoughts on this.

This should be similar to making a jam or jelly, only no gelatin.

Theory 1. Process fruit in blender or chopper. Heat water to below the temp that causes pectin to be removed from fruit. Steep for some time (30min?) then strain very well.

Theory 2. Process fruit in blender or chopper. Put fruit in boiling water for at least 10mins. Strain very well and boil remaining liquid until reduced to a syrup. Use the syrup to make the soda. Will need pectin enzyme to drop haze issue. This syrup could be stored for some time in fridge and used when soda runs out.

Please pick these ideas apart. This could be the start of some fun soda making. Especially with local wild berries and such.

I'm thinking Big Kahuna might have some info as well on this...I would think using fruit in meads is similar to this...

 

[olllllo]

As long as you can make a sweet syrup, you can make a soda.
Especially true if you can force carb. You can use your normal CO2 and a store-bought or homemade carbonator cap.

The process is slightly more complex if you bottle condition as the yeast amounts would be critical. In that case, I would recommend useing pet bottles.

 

[BigKahuna]

I'm thinking Big Kahuna might have some info as well on this...I would think using fruit in meads is similar to this...

I knew my ears were ringing

The only thing I'd say about comparing it to mead, is that mead has alcohol to help extract the flavor, as well as suppress any issues with rogue bacteria.
I would vote for a potentially cloudy soda, and just add boiling sugar water to the fruit. Seal it up, then rack gently in a few days (weeks? Months? Maybe it'll clear?) and then carb as usual. Maybe it's worth your time to add regular soda concentrate to your batch. ie. Cherry soda, or fruit and ginger ale concentrate, as opposed to strait fruit drink.

Another option is to juice the fruit, and use it with sugar and boiled water.

I also contend (theory only...I've been too busy to give it a shot) that boiling water for soda will improve the quality, as it will remove most of the oxygen, and make it more shelf stable as well. This should improve the ability of the liquid to absorb co2, and give a more rounded "Clean" Flavor.

Good Luck, and I'll be watching this to see how it goes.

 

[ms8miranda]

Theory 2. Process fruit in blender or chopper. Put fruit in boiling water for at least 10mins. Strain very well and boil remaining liquid until reduced to a syrup. Use the syrup to make the soda.

Fruits have their own pectin and it will get firmly set (like hard jam) if you continue to boil/cook. I'm not sure if there is a way around this.

 

[The Blow Leprechaun]

I haven't done this, but I'd vote for using juice, possibly up to replacing all of the water with juice and only adding limited amounts of sugar to sweeten to taste.

 

[beertopia]

I just brewed my first batch, it is sitting in a closet fermenting beautifully. To get my wife on board I decided to try my hand a soda. Problem is she is a chiropractor and very health conscious (and 8 months pregnant). All these sodas call for so much sugar, there would be no way she would be into it. So here is what I did with inspiration from this thread.

I took 2 very ripe bartlett pears put them in a pot and mashed them up. Put them on medium heat for 5 min or so then dumped them into a screen colander and with a wooden spoon pushed through all I could. Then low boiled them for 25 min or so.

I ended up with a sweet applesauce type mixture. Transferred it to a cup and put it in the fridge to cool. Later during the superbowl while I was treating myself to the Rouge hazelnut brown I have on tap right now (awesome but $180/keg...ughh) I took a tablespoon or so and mixed it in a cup with club soda and ice. SHE LOVED IT!

Understand it was not sweet like soda. It had a strong pear flavor to start, then almost a flavored soda water taste with finish of sweet. I bet if I threw in some sugar and water during the boil I could make it alot sweeter but she preferred it that way. Another thing, I expected it all to fall to the bottom of the glass, there was some fine pulp but for the most part it didn't.

When I try on a larger scale I will let you know how it turns out.

 

[toontz]

We make fruit "soda" for the kids by using carbonated water mixed with one to two tablespoons of frozen juice concentrate. The grocery store usually carries some concentrates with flavor combos; kiwi-strawberry, orange-mango-banana, that sort of thing. I can personalize each of their glasses of soda this way. I just keep several open juice containers in the freezer covered with a plastic baggie and rubber-banded. They love it!

 

[redbandit]

Here's a helpful link with some info on using everything from extract to fresh fruit
http://www.byo.com/stories/article/indices/47-miscellaneous/1260-pop-art-brewing-excellent-soda

 

[meading_of_minds]

Thanks for the cool link. I'm going to try making a lime soda, somewhat like green river, for my DD. My kids said Mom, if you can make wine, can't you make soda, too? So here we go!

 

[saxarocks]

I cannot say that using fresh fruit is a bad thing, but I recently made a batch of soda using pureed fresh guavas. I tried to make sure everything was sterile, I boiled the fruit before bottling. After only a few hours the soda was fully carbonated, so I put it in the fridge.

The refrigeration did NOT slow the yeast, and every bottle gushed when I opened them. This may or may not be related to the fruit pulp that I used. The other two flavors that I made at the same time did not have the same problem.

 

[Sybil]

I've been playing around making sodas with yeast (premier cuvee) the past few days and it's been a lot of fun. There are so many possibilities...

I've done small batches (some in 0.5L water bottles) of plain apple juice, ginger-lime, cherry, fresh limeade, and fresh orange juice/lime juice and water. Some are extremely good, others need refinement. I use a combination of sugar and splenda.

Today's soda experiment contained fresh (uncooked) strawberries blended finely in water then strained, plus lime juice (yes, we have a tree), and a bit of strawberry koolaide to extend the flavor. This is sweetened with both sugar and splenda, and the flavor is great even though flat and warm. It's fermenting now.

The strawberry pulp remaining (that was strained from the juice) was mixed with a can of blended low sugar peaches, put in a jar, and is in the frig. It will be strained later for some peach/strawberry/lime soda. Maybe some steeped fresh ginger too.

I can hardly wait for the summer fruit season to get here.

 

[eljefebrewing]

Heh. I had that problem in the fall, when I tried making a soda from concord grape juice. I wanted to make something besides just jelly for once. When I opened the bottle, it geysered and foamed over for a couple minutes (no joke!) without stopping.

A couple months ago, I made an orange-flavored soda by juicing/zesting 5 Navel oranges and 2 limes. I made a sugar syrup and simmered the zest in there for about an hour. I juiced the fruits and added to the bottle (2L) with the syrup, and topped up with water. The resulting soda was slightly bitter, (probably got too much pith when zesting, or may have been the limes) so it wasn't great for just drinking a glass. However, it made a fantastic (IMO) mixer! A shot of bourbon and a shot of coconut rum in an old-fashioned glass, ice, and the soda made a pretty tasty beverage! :rockin:

 

[x2wdtoyotax]

Yeah you can absolutely make fruit soda!

I got bored one night and started experimenting. I made strawberry , strawberry-lemonade, and blackberry...all from fresh fruit and naturally carbonated. It was really easy. I just boiled the fruit (about 1 lb) in about a gallon of water for 5-10 minutes. Then, I added sugar to make a simple fruit syrup (to taste) and mixed with water to get the final mixture right. I fermented in a plastic water dispenser (the cheap kind with the plastic spigot for about 24 hours.) All of the recipes came out very, very flavorful and perfectly clear. The pectin didn't seem to be an issue. I did do some "google-ing" to get some quantities for the syrup. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. I think next time I am going to force carbonate to keep the extra crisp taste.

 

[KevinJ]

I have made several gallons of soda with fresh or frozen fruit. Soda is easy and does not need instructions. Dump lots of fruit into some water. Bring to near boil. Add sugar to taste (probably just a little sweeter than you like). Lower temp in ice bath. Add yeast. Put in plastic bottles. Wait till bottles become stiff. Put in refrig and if you remove them from the cold always have the cap off or you will have a bomb.

Kevin

 

[christinahan]

Has anybody heard of/gotten a strong caulking flavor from their fruit sodas?

I made a strawberry soda with fresh strawberry, thai basil, lemon and champagne yeast the other day and when I tried it (twice: once, a few hours after putting it in the fridge and then after a full 24 hours in the fridge) it had an overwhelming smell of caulking coming out of it. I wondering if anyone else has experienced this? Thanks for any help.

Christina

 

[KevinJ]

Not sure what caulk tastes like (I only remember what glue tastes like from kindergarten ). Was the water you started with high in calcium carbonate? Did you practice good sanitation?

Strawberry and lemons do not ferment very well and that is what you may be tasting. They really dull out. Most cherry sodas that are fermented taste like nightquil.

 

[christinahan]

Thanks for all of the suggestions Kevin!

I'm not actually sure what caulk tastes like either but I bet I have a pretty good idea now. I've been trying some other fruit mixtures mainly with pluots and they're working better. I'll make sure I test my water and make sure I really clean the bottles next time. Thanks.

 

[rmolledo]

can you keg the homemade soda and run it though your draught system?