How To Make Naturally Carbonated Root Beer (Or any other kind of soda)
By Finn
WARNING: We are not responsible for any injuries made during creation... Though I doubt you would hurt yourself by doing this but I just want to add that just in case!
Making soda is actually kind of simple. It’s a very similar process to that of bread rising, but with a different strain of yeast. It also takes very few ingredients and the part that takes the most time is carbonating it.
Ingredients
- About 1⁄2 a teaspoon of champagne yeast
- 4 liters of water
- 2 cups of sugar (any kind works)
- The flavoring of whatever kind of soda you want to make. I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that more acidic flavorings may need more time to carbonate. Please fact check me on that I’m writing this on a school computer so every website this side of the galaxy is blocked.
Instructions
Step One: Get your water to about 90 degrees fahrenheit (about 32.2 degrees celsius) so that you can dissolve the sugar throughout the water. The sugar actually has 2 uses, there’s the obvious one of sweetening the soda, but it also is what the yeast eats to create the carbonation. Once it reaches that temperature, pour in the sugar. Stir until it’s fully dissolved and the water looks like normal water again.
Step Two: After the sugar is dissolved, pour in whatever you want to flavor it with and stir that in. If you really want to recreate store bought soda then put some food coloring in it or something I don’t know (don’t add food coloring I was joking).
Step Three: Let the water cool down and then add your very miniscule amount of yeast.
Step Four: Put your not yet carbonated soda into plastic bottles (or a similar material just not glass. The pressure build up in the glass might make it explode and you don’t want a Glass GrenadeTM in your house).
Step Five: Move the bottles to somewhere in a temperature range between I think 60 degrees fahrenheit (about 15.5 degrees celsius) and 70 degrees fahrenheit (about 21 degrees celsius) and leave it to sit for a few days.
Step Six: To check how carbonated it is, squeeze the bottle, (This is why I said to use a plastic adjacent material for bottling) you’re trying to get a squishiness where it is difficult to squeeze but not rock hard (similar to an apple).
Step Seven: Once it is carbonated enough, move it to a refrigerator. The coldness slows down the carbonation by a lot so you can keep it for a while. I personally would let it sit for a little while longer if you dislike yeasty flavors, because that way the yeast can settle to the bottom.
