Root beer recipe

[east_stingray]

The root beer recipe on this site calls for addition of wine yeast to honey and some other ingredients and then immediate bottling. I don't guess I understand how my bottles will explode when filled with still-fermenting mead or wine but they won't when filled with honey soda that is fermenting? It also says to put the soda in 2 liter bottles, but I hate those things and would much rather bottle in something like corona bottles. Is there any reason why this couldn't be done?

[Ben Brewcat]

You're right. Where's that recipe? Grrrr, that's always been a pet peeve of mine. It's dangerous to allow info like that to proliferate, though with plastic the danger is more to your relationship with SWMBO when you try to open that bottle in the kitchen . Before I began my maniacal research into home beverages (like 15 years ago) I made a batch of soda as you describe that began grenading. Fortunately they were in a heavy cardboard box and no one was injured. Since I used Grolsch-style swingtops at the time, I donned heavy armor and burped pressure out of all the survivors and saved the batch.

The tips to consistent sodamaking carbonation are: Don't use champagne yeast, stick with a reliable, neutral ale strain. This allows you to stop the carbonation by refrigerating the bottles when it's time. Also, if using raw honey, consider pasteurizing it so you're working with known yeasts. The plastic PET bottles are nice in one way: do a couple of the sodas in them and when they're rigid, you're carbonated! Chill the whole batch immediately.

Alternately, you can let the batch carbonate, and then if you have the kettle capacity put them in a water bath and heat to 140 for 10 mins or so, then cool slowly. This heat pasteurization will allow you to store the bottle at room temp.

Be aware that obviously, heating an already pressurized glass container is potentially dangerous. I've never had a bottle blow, but there can be flaws in the glass that aren't apparent. Keep a lid on it the whole time until they're cool. Longnecks will hold an incredible amount of pressure before failing, which is good (and bad when they do blow).

I've made tons of soda (I like the extracts from Rainbow) and bottled all of it in longnecks. It's great fun, involves the kids in Dad or Mom's hobby for the brewers/winers, and I just like my sodas not so sweet, with NO phosphoric acid added, just to taste! No creepy additives either. I actually prefer bottling soda to kegging it because you have to use so much pressure to carbonate soda that the dispensing can be tricky.

[east_stingray]

Ben, the recipe is here

http://beesource.com/eob/hs.htm

So, your main token of helpful advice on this recipe is to use ale yeast rather than champagne? Done and done. I'll use one two liter also so that I know when it's carbonated well. I just don't like how you lose all the carbonation the first time you open them.

[Ben Brewcat]

Yeah. You can use a plastic 12-ozer too; no reason for the big one. The critical thing is to refrigerate to stop carbonation at the right time.