Hot Ginger Soda

Being an ameteur soda maker, I have occasionally experimented with making ginger-based sodas. Typically, the result has been a brew lacking the intensity that I have desired.

This time, I sought out to brew a batch of raw ginger power, something that would make Red Bull seem for babies. And I succeded. Perhaps too well.

I started by grating up probably a half-pound of ginger, reducing it to a juicy fine pulp, which I put into a half-gallon of filtered water. I added in a half-cup of brown sugar, and a bit of Splenda. Or did I? I don't recall on the Splenda, but I did add in the brown sugar. I do believe I squirted in some vanilla extract.

The brew was very potent, but it wasn't hot. I added in a bunch of chili powder. Now, it is hot. Plenty hot. Fiery hot. After bring the mix to a boil for a bit, I allowed it to cool down to about 110 degrees f.

I mixed up about a teaspoon of champagne yeast with some of the brew, dissolved it, and poured the mixture into the brew. After stirring it up, I bottled up six botles, capping them with red bottlecaps. I figured it was an appropriate color.

Typically a yeast-carbonated soda takes 10 to 14 days to age, at which time it is pleasantly carbonated. In this case, however, in a week the bottles exhibited bulging bottlecaps, an sign of potentially dangerous overcarbonation. Yeast loves sugar, and I had either too much sugar or too much yeast. I would probably cut down on the sugar, reducing it to an eigth-cup. Overcarbonated bottles could burst, not a safe situation.

No better time than tonight to put some in the fridge and have a taste! I put in a bottle for an hour, and proceeded to open it up in the sink. Sure enough, a volcano of foam erupted out of the bottle like a fire extinguisher gone wild. After the bottle spewed it's contents, barely a third or a quarter of it's contents remained.

What remained was pure ginger fire.

The brew was not soda, it was more like burning ginger pulp. Next time I will use my "hop bag" to keep the solids separate from the liquid. I poured the brew through a strainer to get down to the liquid, and it was honestly too much for me to handle. I'll have to try with the other bottles after they get colder.

Next time, reduce the sugar, leave out the chili powder, use the hop bag to keep the yeast pulp out.