Sparkling "Hard" water recipe

[Andrew Hodgson]

Okay thanks, maybe I missed it and there was no krausen. I'll check the gravity and bottle if necessary this weekend and then we will see if I get that awesome result you have!

 

[Schlenkerla]

Okay thanks, maybe I missed it and there was no krausen. I'll check the gravity and bottle if necessary this weekend and then we will see if I get that awesome result you have!

Was the air lock bliping away or that's what you missed?

You could stick a flashlight up against your glass jug. Look for cloudiness and bubbles. Maybe even sediment.

Smell your air lock. I have had really good results with S-33. It's my goto yeast after S-05.

If you would have seen it going you'd be like wow. It's like a constant stream of CO2 8 hours after pitching.

 

[Schlenkerla]

Okay thanks, maybe I missed it and there was no krausen. I'll check the gravity and bottle if necessary this weekend and then we will see if I get that awesome result you have!

How do you plan to carbonate your hard water? Forced CO2 hopefully.

Or will you drink it still over ice?

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

How do you plan to carbonate your hard water? Forced CO2 hopefully.

Or will you drink it still over ice?

Nah nothing fancy like that we will be bottle conditioning these bad boys once I confirm she's bone dry.

 

[applescrap]

Cant wait to hear how this tirns out.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

It has been sitting in the jug for awhile now, since 9/28. I will be bottling this if I get a chance in the next few days, maybe Saturday. It looks pretty good. Really neutral color even in the FV with a slight hint of yellow/green due to the lime zest. We will see and I will report back once the bottles are carbed up and it gets the first taste test. Can't comment on smell or anything as it is sitting next to 6 gallons of 1.081 saison that is ripping beer farts like no tomorrow.

 

[bracconiere]

love stuff like this! best to be prepared, never know what the prohibitionists will try!

 

[Schlenkerla]

Last night I served my Pooch at the local brew pub. They allow you to share bottles.

I brought in a liter in swing top bottle. Then poured about 17 samplers...

People asked, What is it? I told them it's a fermented Hard Water. Using honey, corn syrup, hops and ale yeast and tap water. If you're a mead drinker its a hydromel/metheglin. It's 4.6% abv.

Most said they thought it tasted like bubbly water, with a fruit taste. Most didn't pick out peach until I told them. So it's watery with a light peach taste. Many said they didn't think there was alcohol in it.

I told then there's alcohol in it, there's six pounds of fermentables in it, if you drink two pints, you'll figure that out.

Out of 17 people two were ladies. Most of the people knocked back like it was a shot. One person said they don't drink bubbly water at a bar. He refused to even taste it, but he's an ass most of the time. His loss.

 

[Miraculix]

Last night I served my Pooch at the local brew pub. They allow you to share bottles.

I brought in a liter in swing top bottle. Then poured about 17 samplers...

People asked, What is it? I told them it's a fermented Hard Water. Using honey, corn syrup, hops and ale yeast and tap water. If you're a mead drinker its a hydromel/metheglin. It's 4.6% abv.

Most said they thought it tasted like bubbly water, with a fruit taste. Most didn't pick out peach until I told them. So it's watery with a light peach taste. Many said they didn't think there was alcohol in it.

I told then there's alcohol in it, there's six pounds of fermentables in it, if you drink two pints, you'll figure that out.

Out of 17 people two were ladies. Most of the people knocked back like it was a shot. One person said they don't drink bubbly water at a bar. He refused to even taste it, but he's an ass most of the time. His loss.

Did they like it?

 

[Schlenkerla]

Did they like it?

Yeah they did. Most said was ok, said it tasted like water with a fruity taste. I don't think many knew what to think of it.

They were drinking NEIPA, IIPA, sours, or bourbon stouts or scotch ale.

To taste like nothing is a compliment. That's what I was after. Even with fruity taste being hard to dedect as peach until told, was good. To me then it's not over done as a Hard Water as it should, taste like water. No defects. No off putting flavor. No cloying sweetness, nothing fake tasting or deceptively artificial is a win.

Even if hard core beer drinkers don't get it, it doesn't bother me. Most of them have a healthy dislike of Budweiser, Coors, and Miller. They may not GET the significant challenge to make an alcoholic water from fermentation and it be NOT off putting taste wise.

I'll have to bring it back when the owners are there. It's a brewery too. It was aggravating that I missed them by 20 minutes.

 

[Schlenkerla]

A hefe of hard water...

 

[madscientist451]

Without changing the ingredients, you could probably get more flavor by changing your process slightly.
It is not necessary to boil Honey, just heat it slightly until its blended with the water. Keeping THE Honey/Water mixture below 100F will preserve aroma and flavor. Since the corn syrup is already cooked, you could add a quart of water to that and boil a hop tea.
Peach flavor is somewhat delicate, racking the the "mead" on to the peaches after primary fermentation may produce better results.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

I cut the honey out of my batch completely and went full corn syrup. Get that batch price on down.

 

[Schlenkerla]

Without changing the ingredients, you could probably get more flavor by changing your process slightly.
It is not necessary to boil Honey, just heat it slightly until its blended with the water. Keeping THE Honey/Water mixture below 100F will preserve aroma and flavor. Since the corn syrup is already cooked, you could add a quart of water to that and boil a hop tea.
Peach flavor is somewhat delicate, racking the the "mead" on to the peaches after primary fermentation may produce better results.

Good idea about the carboy idea. I haven't done that for years for a session style beer. I might want to try that again. The only other time I've done that recently is with a brandy soaked mince meat. Soaked it in a big beer like one would do with lambic or a sour. It was on that for nearly a year.

For the last few years I have done the fruit additions like a late hop addition. Doing so at flame out or whirlpool. This advice is following the suggestions of Sam Calagione in Extreme Brewing. Sam's the owner of Dogfishead.

I wanted this to be just like water and the fruit subtle. If the fruit was prominent it would be more like a wine cooler. I also want this to be a quickly maturing drink.

Has it been your experience that racking to a carboy with fruit is a longer aging thing or no?

 

[madscientist451]

Has it been your experience that racking to a carboy with fruit is a longer aging thing or no?

No, I haven't noticed any longer aging requirements when adding fruit in the secondary.

 

[Schlenkerla]

No, I haven't noticed any longer aging requirements when adding fruit in the secondary.

How long after you pitch? Maybe I've waited too long to secondary. Possibly the yeast is starting to go dormant. Cell count is reduced, etc.

 

[madscientist451]

I usually wait until primary is finished, but there's always enough yeast to make it kick off again, unless the ABV is high.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

I bottled my gallon up last night, got 11 12ozers from the gallon. Seems pretty promising, has a vague color from the lime zest and has a very light aroma of lime but it is otherwise pretty neutral. 1oz of sugar in the bottling bucket and we will pop one this weekend and see what we got.

 

[Schlenkerla]

Poochin' it for now!

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

I can’t wait to looch it up! Hopefully mine doesn’t taste like poopy.

 

[Schlenkerla]

I can’t wait to looch it up! Hopefully mine doesn’t taste like poopy.

It won't.... [emoji481] [emoji481] [emoji481]

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

View media item 69519 here she is. 17 days in fermentation and 10 days in the bottle.

A couple notes:
I swapped out honey for more corn syrup for this 1 gallon tester batch.

I think I inderpitched and that is why it is having a hard time carbing up. Barely any carbonation. I thought 1 teaspoon of S33 would be fine but I likely undershot having enough yeast to carb. As noted previously this yeast drops out hard and I did not rouse when I bottled.

Process issues aside this is what I want it to be flavor wise. Almost no residual sweetness, although a tad bit I attribute to the non-fermented bottling sugar. Just a hint of lime flavor and color though. Not impressive and I will probably drink these solo but I think I have learned enough and can make a solid looch next go. I still have corn syrup and just need another packet of yeast and a couple limes to give this another go. I can see the drink this wants to be I just have to adjust to really make it shine.

 

[Schlenkerla]

Mine's pretty well carbed. The high carb makes it more like seltzer water.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

I’ll get it to look beautiful like that one of these tries.

 

[applescrap]

Wow, super cool guys. I hope this question isn't to ridiculous, why corn syrup instead of sugar?

 

[Schlenkerla]

Wow, super cool guys. I hope this question isn't to ridiculous, why corn syrup instead of sugar?

I wanted to make something close to water, taste and color, and not be so blatantly cheap in my sugar choice. I also wanted to do this like an extract.

I also get bad hangovers from something with a lot of cane sugar. So far corn syrup with vanilla and honey combo hasn't given me hangovers in the morning.

 

[Schlenkerla]

Local bees like this Pooch....

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

So after being disappointed with my result after trying a bottle after the normal 2 week carbonating time (post #112^) I left the seltzers in a warm room I use for carbing and just let them sit. Almost a month later and they have gained some more carbonation. Not the lovely amount that Schlenkerla has been showing off but enough to where my lady tried one this weekend and really enjoyed it. So I think this confirms that there just wasn't enough yeast and it took extra time to carb. Next time will pitch a larger amount and I expect this problem to go away. Cheers.

 

[Miraculix]

Local bees like this Pooch....View attachment 595402View attachment 595403

Don't be a smart ass....

.... Don't be a smart ass......


Don't......


...... That's a wasp and not a bee!

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I’ve decided to make this for my next batch. I’m going to use mango purée, so mine will be Mooch. I think I’ll use a little more fruit in mine. I want the flavor to be a little more evident than Schlenkerla described, but still subtle. When I get my recipe worked up, I’ll share it and publish the results there after.