honey pop

[wayacoyote]

Ok, I made the honeypop from a MotherEarth News Recipe (because it used grape juice). In true tradition of my wife: I followed the recipe exactly, except
I substituted 48oz of reconstituted juice and added water for the 1 gallon of juice
I substituted 1/2 cup honey for the 3/4 cup sugar

The other ingredients were: 1 gallon water and 1/2 teaspoon yiest (I used Red Star Pastuer Champain)

Yeast was added at 89 F and I let it set out 24 hours per the instructions. By then it really smelled wine-ish, but the reduced juice probably watered down the flavor, with a yeasty smell ("no more than bread" said the wife. "Great, I made bread-pop" said I.)

Bottled it and left it on the counter for 3 hours for the bottles to become ridgid. We sampled some while watching a movie. Watered down flavor, not very "crisp" and my wife said it did taste like it was going to wine. Not good because we don't drink alcohol.

Any ideas?

[Bizzybee]

I've made a couple of runs so far with about the same results. It does seem to get better with a few days in the fridge as it continues to build carbon even chilled.

My next run I plan to use ale yeast that I picked up recently. I understand that after the pressure reaches a certain point in the bottles, ale yeast dies off and prevents the bottles from becoming a bomb. Wine yeast apparently tolerates the pressure and stays active.

If taste will be any different or not using ale yeast I don't know. Be finding out soon though. I didn't think the taste was so bad myself, not that I got very much of it. My son sucked most of it down before I had a chance to have much of it. Same with food around a 15 year old boy.

[wayacoyote]

I have some ale yiest, so will try again following the directions more closely. One correction: I was wrong in what I wrote regarding the quantities of fluids. I DIDN't make up 2 gallons, as I wrote. I Only made one gallon. However, It WAS diluted as I stated.

We only had it in the fridge overnight. It got quite rigid, though not foamy when opened. I took it outside with my son so we could enjoy the fiz. Quite anti-climatic.

[Ben Brewcat]

My next run I plan to use ale yeast that I picked up recently. I understand that after the pressure reaches a certain point in the bottles, ale yeast dies off and prevents the bottles from becoming a bomb. Wine yeast apparently tolerates the pressure and stays active.

Ale yeast just shuts down more reliably in the fridge, and has a lower alcohol tolerance. The pressure doesn't have much if anything to do with it. To prove it make some in a glass bottle and let it go (but do it inside a cooler, taped shut, in your cellar ). Been there, done that, grenades generally don't truly detonate catastrophically but it's DEFINITELY UNSAFE especially when you open it. Plastic is much preferred for that reason, though mopping the kitchen ceiling from opening one before SWMBO gets home is unfun. If you refrigerate it once the bottles become rigid, there will be a negligible (though technically present) amount of alcohol. When I was making lots of homemade soda it never had an alcoholic flavor to it, but some of the attempts at "traditional" birch sodas and the like definitely had a kind of thin bodied, medicinal, not-super-enjoyable quality to them.

[mattoleriver]

I wonder if Malto Dextrin or Cara Pils would improve mouthfeel and head retention in soda as they do in beer?

Are creating head and retaining head two completely different problems?

I hear that there are heading agents that can be used to create a nice foamy head but I haven't used one and don't know where to find one. I've only made root beer a couple times and both times the flavor was good but the lack of a creamy head was disappointing.

George

[Ben Brewcat]

I wonder if Malto Dextrin or Cara Pils would improve mouthfeel and head retention in soda as they do in beer?
George

Well not Carapils; that requires mashing or you'll get starchy root beer that spoils quickly. Maltodextrin might be worth an experiment, but sodas really don't have mush head retention (naturally anyways) in my experience. Lots of bizarre things have been added to beverages to increase head retention, most memorably cobalt sulfate's over-use in a Quebec brewery which killed 16 people. Natural head retention is pretty much a beer thing.

[papa bear]

hey. i went to the beesource recipe that barry made a link to. seemed simple, what does this statement mean,
[SIZE=-1](Important note: The spout cover must be held in place tightly against the spout's body when filling the bottles to prevent squirting all over the place.)[/SIZE]

what is the "spout cover"? is the brew in the bucket pressurized? or is it free flow

[Barry]

That just means that if your funnel doesn't fit down inside of the bottles, you will need to hold tight against the top lip of the bottle so it doesn't leak. No big deal here. Not sure why John felt the need to add this. No, it's not under pressure.

[wayacoyote]

The Beesource recipe for honey pop makes 4 gallons or so. We don't need that much. Can I divide the recipe by 4?

[Ben Brewcat]

I'm sure.

[wayacoyote]

Ok, I just made another batch using a Mother Earth News recipe for "honey ginger ale". I used the champange yeast that I already had open. 1 gallon of water, 1 cup honey, juice of 2 lemons, grated ginger, 1/2 teaspoon champange yeast. Mix and let set 24 hours, then pour into plastic bottles and chill.

This stuff tastes like ROT. I don't get it; where's the crisp refreshing flavor of soda pop? I'll try again using the dry ale yeast, but I'm discouraged.

[Bizzybee]

I made some almost exactly like that and got the same result waya. It actually didn't taste to bad after sitting in the fridge for about a week and a half. I don't know what made me decide to keep it after that first taste but it sure aged well. No idea what it continued doing or not doing that made the taste come around?

[AndrewSchwab]

Ooooo so little room, so many things to try

[wayacoyote]

should I rack when I bottle it? (Isn't racking when you siphon off the top?)

[ScadsOBees]

I used a ginger beer flavoring to make ginger honey pop, and that worked very well, I really like that. Something with using raw ingredients?

I do know that there was a lot of settling with that flavoring (versus the root beer and creme soda).

[ScadsOBees]

as far as smaller batches, on the flavoring that I purchased it said something like one cup of honey (or sugar) per 2-liter bottle.

But our 8 bottles went quickly....

[wayacoyote]

I do have some artificial flavorings. I'm still willing to try again. Next time, I'm going to keep more detailed account of each ingredient, so I'll know what to tweek. But I need to get one good enough that tweeking is all that is needed. What I have is utterly aweful. Thanks for the encouragement.