*updated:* Ginger Ale 2, Root Beer 3

Part of the raison d'etre of this blog is to chronicle Danny's continuing adventures in soda-making. For Christma-Hannu-Solstice-Versary this year, I got him a book and some equipment for making soda at home. It's been a dream of his. And while we've had some success, it's definitely a work in progress.

In addition to a book and some bottle and jugs, getting started required a trip to the Food Mill in Oakland, an amazing store with crazy bulk herbs, in order to get such essential ingredients as sassafras and sarsaparilla and burdock. 

The first recipe Danny made was for a very simple root beer, with just sassafras, sugar, and yeast. It didn't carbonate quite enough and tasted too weak.

Batch 2 was gingerale, and having learned we like our soda stronger than the book says, he put in a whole big rhizome's worth of grated ginger, plus some lemon. He let the bottles sit to carbonate longer, and the gingerale was fantastic. Like Reed's ginger beer, but cheaper and more exciting.

Buoyed by that success, Batch 3 was a try for a stronger root boor, with an order of magnitude more sassafras. Yup, it tasted like sassafras. Turns out our platonic ideal of root beer has something more in it than that. 

[Reminds me of a Mitch Hedberg joke: "They say the recipe for Sprite is lemon and lime. But I tried to make it at home; there's more to it than that. 'Want some more homemade Sprite?' 'Not 'til you figure out what the f@%k else is in it!'"]

And that brings us to Batch 4, picture here: Gingerale 2. Danny used some orange instead of lemon, and less sugar than before (1 cup for a gallon instead of 1.5 cups). Also he may have accidently put too much yeast in. Result:

Explosion!!

As for taste?

Hmmm. Eh.

So the gingerale 2 was less than spectacular. But it was fine. We just expected spectacular.

Onward to Root Beer 3! Danny just brewed it up tonight, so we'll have to wait for the results. But here's what he put in (for a gallon):

• 1.25 cups sugar
• 9 T sarsaparilla
• 5 T sassafras
• 1/4 c raisins
• 1/4 c dried cherries (we ran out of raisins)
• 1/8 t ale yeast

And now we wait. Back in about 5 days with the update!

Sodas brewing in front of the heater!

*Update:* Tastiness has been achieved! This is definitely the best root beer yet, good enough that I was proud to share it with our neighbors to celebrate the glorious weather a few days ago. It still doesn't have that sharp bite I like with root beer, but it's got way more depth than our other attempts. The flavor reminds me most of Mug brand, which is what they sold in the vending machine at my middle school. And the sugar hits the sweet spot for me, pardon the pun, so 1.25 cups shall become the new baseline.

The only weird thing about this batch is that there's some weird thick yeasty guck that is gathering at the top, amidst the foam. I've had to squeeze the bottle a bit after opening it to shed the thick, gunky foam on top. Underneath it's normal and lovely, though. It's like the yeast is settling at the top. Is that possible?