June 30, 2012

Quick Kegging Recipes

So it's already the weekend before the 4th of July and you need kid friendly kegged beverages for your picnic.  If you're going to make some beverage for your Independence Day bash, there's just enough time to get brewin'!
Here are some easy kegging versions for some of the recipes I've posted.

Key to any good kegged recipe is going to be keeping it as cold as possible.  It carbonates faster and more fully, it stays carbonated better, and it tastes better.

To keep it easy, I always try and do 1 lb sugar per 1 gallon of finished soda.  The only exception has been the homemade cola recipe that worked out so well with less.  (Soon to be posted, I promise).  I prefer to heat it to invert it, which takes a lot longer when you're doing 5 pounds of sugar.

So here are those recipes I mentioned earlier:

Lime in d' Coconut:
2 - 17 oz cans coconut water
1 - 15 oz bottle lime juice.
1 1/2 teaspoons citric acid (substitute one cup lemon juice)

In a large brew kettle or stockpot, heat sugar to invert, add 1 gallon of water, and the coconut water.  This makes sure the sugar isn't too thick and hard to work with.  Pour into keg, add citric acid and lime juice. Top up with water.  Seal the keg and pressurize to 30-35psi to carbonate at 33-35°F. At that temperature and with some occasional shaking, it should take about day or two.

Ginger Ale:
2 Tablespoons Ginger Paste
32 oz Lemon Juice

In a large brew kettle or stockpot, heat sugar to invert, add 1 gallon of water.  See reasons above.  Separately, heat ginger in 1-2 gallons water to just before boiling. Strain ginger pulp out.  Discard pulp and add infused water to keg with sugar and lemon juice.  Top up with water.  Seal the keg and pressurize to 30-35psi to carbonate at 33-35°F.

Sarsparilla:
1 Tablespoon Sarsparilla Root
1 Tablespoon Wintergreen Leaves
2 Tablespoons Molasses
3 oz Vanilla Extract

In a large brew kettle or stockpot, heat sugar to invert, add 1 gallon of water.  See reasons above.  Separately, heat sarsparilla and wintergreen in 2 gallons water to just before boiling. Strain out roots and leaves.  Discard them. Add infused water to keg with sugar and lemon juice.  Top up with water.  Seal the keg and pressurize to 30-35psi to carbonate at 33-35°F.

So there you have it.  15 gallons worth of soda recipes.
I really hope that I didn't leave anything out.  If you feel like these have been overly simplified and you have questions, feel free to ask in the comments or my email has been listed under the About Me profile.  I'd be glad to answer them.

I also would have added pictures, but if you've seen one ball lock keg, well, you've seen them all.

4 comments:

  1. Do you have any 2.5 gallon recipes for the portable small corny kegs? Would I just halve the recipe?

    Would the Sarsparilla be good using brown sugar or turbinado sugar instead of granulated white sugar and then forgo the molasses?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, you could halve the recipe without a problem. I tried to keep them simple so that they would be easy to adjust and so that they would be inexpensive, yet still be pretty tasty.

      The Sarsaparilla was actually designed with the white sugar and molasses as an alternative to brown sugar. If you have the brown sugar on hand, that works well. I happened to have molasses and white sugar on hand, but no brown sugar. I liked better that way because I could easily invert the sugar, then add the molasses. I've never inverted brown or turbinado sugar. It should be the same, but I've done it with white sugar so many times, I can usually tell when it's done by sight, texture, and taste, so I didn't want to mess that up.

      Delete
  2. i have a corrny keg setup full of root beer but when i go to poor a glass i get half foam. any tips to get it running like one would want it to?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Running it as cold as you can helps. Typically kegging setups are sold with 5 ft. serving lines, which is great for beer, but tends to create foam in sodas. You can get a longer line from a homebrew supply store, or you might also want to check out the "Cure for your short hose troubles" thread on the HomebrewTalk Forums. You can get some epoxy mixers that fit right in the dip tube and create extra line resistance to cut down on foam.

      I hope it works out for you!

      Delete

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