Soda instead of priming sugar

[snail71]

First let me state that I am new to the home brew world so this question may be completely dumb. I am wanting to brew a beer like the Grapefruit/Hefeweizen that can be found at Epcot. After doing some research it appears that it is actually half beer and half grapefruit soda. So my question is can I brew a standard hefeweizen, not add priming sugar, mix the hefeweizen and soda in the bottling bucket, and then age as if it had been primed? Would the sugar in soda cause fermentation in the bottle?

 

[hobomoto]

I am by no means an authority or expert here but this is what comes to mind to me...

I'm not familiar with that beer but I would assume they mix the beer and soda at the time of consumption, correct?

You'll end up with something very different mixing the two at bottling time, possibly bottle bombs if you're not careful!

The yeast will consume the sugar thus changing the flavor of the beer and soda mix and making more co2 in addition to what the soda already has.

If you really wanted to mix the two and bottle the mixture I think you would have to

1. Make beer and carbonate to desired level (keg might be easiest)
2. Kill yeast in the beer (campden tablets??? Not sure)
3. Mix soda and beer and bottle.

 

[hobomoto]

That being said... its totally possible to mix the soda with the beer before bottling to get the right amount of sugar or corn syrup to carbonate to the right volumes. You have to figure out how many grams you need and then look and see how many grams of sugar/corn syrup exist in a 12 oz can of soda and then figure out how many cans of soda you need to add to the beer...

The problem is that the amount of soda you need for proper carbonation may not be the right amount to get the flavor that you want from the soda. But, only one way to find out! Might be good!

 

[snail71]

I hadn't thought of carbonating the beer and then mixing. May have to give that a try.

 

[hobomoto]

Kinda buzzed when I typed that up last night...

Maybe the best option would be to...

Add soda to secondary. Let it ferment out. Then prime and bottle.

That way you can control the flavor contribution of the soda..

Do you know how the brewery does thiers?

 

[dmtaylor]

If this beer truly exists in bottled or kegged form, then the yeast must almost certainly be filtered out and/or dead, and the beer must certainly be force carbonated. I seriously doubt that you would get results worth human consumption if you allow soda to ferment out and then prime and bottle like a regular batch of brew -- it would be super sour, dry and nasty, if you could stomach any at all. Either kill the yeast and force carb, or mix in the glass, or... no, that's all, those are your only two options.

 

[snail71]

I think this is the beer:
http://www.schofferhofer.us/

From the site: "It’s a true 50/50 blend of total refreshment made from 50% Schofferhofer Hefeweizen blended with 50% carbonated juice of 100% natural ingredients."

 

[lurker18]

That Schoff Grapefruit is really good stuff for very hot summer days. Low ABV (2.5-3% ??), so you can pound them, and the girls really like them too. I would like to be able to make a beer like this, but also think that the beer would have to be totally dead before you added any grapefruit into it or else it would re ferment and end up with some sort of vomit monster.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

I did a lemon hefeweizen using this except with simply lemonade instead of lime. Brew as a regular AG beer, and carb as you see fit. FYI, I assume since Disney is largely a no/low alcohol/family friendly establishment, they mix beer with soda to reduce the alcohol content and avoid silly people in the park. The recipe I linked would instead yield a full strength beer.

You also could start there.

oops, the recipe link didn't take lets try this again!!!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=255659

 

[snail71]

I did a lemon hefeweizen using this except with simply lemonade instead of lime. Brew as a regular AG beer, and carb as you see fit. FYI, I assume since Disney is largely a no/low alcohol/family friendly establishment, they mix beer with soda to reduce the alcohol content and avoid silly people in the park. The recipe I linked would instead yield a full strength beer.

You also could start there.

Thanks for the input. Do you have a link to the recipe?