Book Review - Make Your Own Soda: Syrups Recipes by Anton Nocito and Lynn Marie Hulsman

from Clarkson Potter, a division of Random House
Available from Amazon, (also on Kindle), Barnes and Noble, (also on Nook)

From Clarkson Potter Publishers comes yet another do-it-yourself soda syrup book that is geared toward those using the Sodastream or similar techniques.  It contains upwards of 40 recipes for homemade soda syrups using natural ingredients and how to use the syrups for soda plus another 30 or so recipes for other beverages such as cocktails, mocktails, shakes, egg creams, and hot drinks using the syrups.  Author Anton Nocito is the founder of P&H Soda Co. which sells some of the very syrups for which recipes are contained in this book.

Overall, the recipes are simple and easy to follow.  None of them have more than a handful of ingredients.  The instructions are clear and concise and it has some helpful hints for the best carbonation and getting the best out of your ingredients.  This is the book that Andrea Lynn's Artisan Soda Workshop could have been.  If you were disappointed by Lynn's book or felt like it was just too small, check this one out and see if it's more your style in content and quantity.  It's bigger and has more recipes, yet it has the same simple and easy technique that Lynn uses in a clean presentation.

Somehow, the quality of the book is not hindered by it's down sides, though it does have a few.  Absent is any mention of the possibility of fermenting these recipes or using them for a straight carbonation technique.  It never purports to be anything more than a recipe book for soda syrups, so it is not trying to be anything more than it is.  However, the beginning sodamaker may find some challenges in adapting sodas for different techniques.  Another downside is the same beef I had with Lynn's book, the availability of ingredients.  I have to remind myself that the "artisan" moniker usually means more expensive.  Maybe my complaint is that I just simply don't have access to some of the fresh ingredients Nocito uses.  I don't know where to find lemon verbena,  anise hyssop, or quince.  Maybe I'm not looking in the right places.  The syrup recipes are divided into two sections: Syrups From the Farm, and Syrups From the Pantry.  I don't see a definite distinction between the two sections.  I don't know anyone off the top of my head who has fresh lemongrass, guava, or huckleberry on their farm, (attempts to domesticate the huckleberry have turned out to be blueberries) and I don't know anyone who has lovage in their pantry.  I would guess that from the farm means you can grow your own ingredients with ease and from the pantry means you're better off purchasing them?  To me this would make more economical sense, and economics is partially what led me to sodamaking, but then there's that economics and availability thing again.  Nocito is kind enough to list some of his source for ingredients in an appendix, though.  Since all are web pages, they are virtually accessible by all which makes availability a moot point.

The recipes are simple and have good flavor, given you use good ingredients.  I used cheap dried cherries for the dried cherry syrup, and the resulting soda tasted like cheap dried cherries.  It could definitely use some citric acid.  The variety is nice, even with simple recipes.  The Golden Raisin Shrub makes for a tasty beverage, though according to my 8-year-old daughter, it made the kitchen smell like moldy ketchup.  Granted she's not used to smelling apple cider vinegar in a syrup, but I don't think she really knows what moldy ketchup smells like.

Some of the things that I really like about this book are the various beverages that use the syrups.  The thing that sticks out the most are the mocktail recipes scattered throughout the book.  To quote Nocito, "sometimes a cocktail is called for, and sometimes so is a clear head..."  Being one that doesn't drink, I find his recipes for Lime Rickey, Rockaway Beach Club, and Lucy and Ricky Rickey among others a welcome inclusion in a mixed beverage world where all the really tasty looking stuff has some form of alcohol in it.  Not to worry though, there are a number of cocktail recipes as well for those obliged to imbibe.

Nocito's nostalgic flair shines through from the "Fountain Facts" found frequently in the sidebars to the entire section on egg creams and floats reminiscent of the glory days of drug store fountains and soda jerks. Included in this section are also a handful of recipes for ice creams for your floats for a complete DIY experience.  From the ordinary vanilla ice cream to lemon verbena ice cream, there's something for everybody.

Though most of the syrup flavors are basic single flavor syrups with simple and easy to follow instructions, I find Nocito's book a good read and a handy reference for flavor base inspiration.  Not too big, and not too small, this is a definite must have addition to any sodamaker's library with recipes for the novice as well as for the experienced.

Blog Under Construction

So, I've decided to make some changes and keep things a little less cluttered.  I hope everyone likes the new arrangement.

I wanted a vintage soda look.  I'm still not sure if I nailed it or not.

Feel free to comment on the new look.

In case you missed it, this is what it used to look like:

So I'm open to criticism.  If the colors are vomit inducing, please let me know.  If the new look rocks, make a comment!

Recipe 26 - Cherry Limeade Soda

Near the beginning of last month, (or for those living in Minnesota at this very moment) I thought that winter would never end.  As luck would have it, I think it actually did.  So now that allergy season is here, I would like to just forego spring and slip right into summer.  Since I can't really do that, I'll pretend it's summer and make some summer recipes instead.

I’ll admit that Cherry Limeade isn’t the first thing that I think of when I think of summer, but it definitely has a summer vibe to it.  You can get through a cherry limeade without summer, but can you get through summer without a cherry limeade?  It’s a question of the ages.  I’ve always enjoyed the Minute Maid cherry limeade, so when I made this, that was the flavor I was going for.  I’m confident it won’t disappoint.

You can also added some extra citric acid or increase the lemon juice to lime juice ratio if you want something that leans a little more toward a Cherry 7up clone. 

This is a syrup + seltzer recipe, but there are no changes if you want to carbonate it straight.  It scales up to five gallons rather easily if you want to keg it.  

2 1/4 cups sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1 1/2 cup water
1/2 cup lime juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp pure almond or cherry extract
1 maraschino cherry
4 drops red food coloring (if desired)
1 gallon carbonated water.

To make the syrup, boil the sugar, water, and cream of tartar for about 20 minutes, or until it reaches 240°F.
Remove from heat and allow to cool.  Add the lemon juice, lime juice, and cherry.  Add the flavor extract last.  I added some red food coloring to mine so it looks more like cherry.  Otherwise I can't tell it apart from my Lime in d' Coconut recipe by sight.  You can choose to mash up the maraschino cherry to get all the juice out of it and remove it, or leave it alone and leave it in as almost a garnish.  I find that adding the cherry gives the flavor a bit more depth than just the extract.  You may wish to substitute sweet cherry juice if you have any on hand, but in my experience it's rather pricey.

Top up with a gallon of carbonated water and you have a refreshing summer beverage!

Book Review: The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz

from Chelsea Green Publishing
Available from:  Amazon , (also on Kindle ), Barnes and Noble (also on Nook)
I tend to avoid old fashioned fermented recipes for a number of reasons; they require specific time requirements, you run the risk of gushing or exploding bottles, they typically have sediment that most people don't like, they can have a yeasty flavor, the fermentation can run away and get too alcoholic, and so on.

For some people, old school is the way to go, so if you've come to this blog in search of fermentable recipes, I apologize for disappointing.  But there are plenty of resources available.  Katz's The Art of Fermentation was published last year as a wonderful reference for all things fermentable.  From beer and wine to pickles and vegetables to yogurt and dairy, if it's fermentable, you'll find it here, or at least something very similar.  There are even non-food applications such as latex paint alternatives and soil remediation.  It's definitely an interesting read.

The section that I had interest in was Chapter 6: Fermenting Sour Tonic Beverages.  Basic fermentation principles are explained along with some cursory discussion of carbonation plus a number of recipes and some troubleshooting tips.  If you're interested in fermenting soda but don't know where to start, this book is for you.  Even if you don't plan to ferment anything there are some interesting recipes that could easily be adapted to force carbonation with a little experimentation.  Some of the recipes such as Kvass and Ginger Beer I've seen before.  I thought the discussion on the Jamaican roots beer (yes, apparently it's plural in Jamaica) was of particular interest.  First, because I've never seen that particular history before or the plural, and second, to see the variation of roots that go into it.  The list included "sarsaprilla root, strongback root, shuteye marker plant, dandelion plant, coconut root, guava root, vervain plant, chainy root, bloodwrist plan, bug-me-close root, tan pan root, jack saga root, long liver, cold tongue, dark tongue, dog's tongue, search-me-heart, soon-on-earth, God's bush, devil has whip, water grass, and raw moon."  And I thought five roots was exotic.  I'm guessing most of these are native to Jamaica.  Another thing that I haven't seen before is a discussion on how to start your own Ginger Beer Plant or Ginger Bug.  The small amount of information I had read on this subject suggested one would have to get a starter culture from someone else first.  Some of the recipes are from around the world, such as Pru -  a botanical/herbal beverage from Cuba, Sweet Potato Fly from Guyana (this one is on my list to try), Smreka - a juniper berry soft drink from Bosnia, along with some discussion on Kombucha, Kefir, and other drinks.

When I say the book contains recipes, it doesn't necessarily give you ingredient amounts as many are accustomed to seeing.  The book is more a guide on how to make fermentables, rather than what fermentables to make.  So a "recipe" might seem more like a discussion on what one would commonly do to make a particular thing, indicating that it's up to the reader to concoct their own recipe according to their individual tastes.  If you're a huge do-it-yourselfer looking to start your own cultures and fermented foods, this book would be an excellent buy to have on hand for a reference.  If you're mildly curious about fermentation, it may be information overload and be something that would be better borrowed from the library on the occasions you might want to whip something up.

Recipe 25 - Fruity Banana Soda

This one is for my brother-in-law.  He spent some time in Honduras and he always misses their banana sodas that they apparently have down there.
If you recall, I had tried using an actual banana for flavor, but that just turned out to be such a mess, and had more of a cooked banana flavor once it was finished.  Maybe I'll save that method for a banana-bread type soda flavor if I want to do further development there.

To get more of the fresh fruit flavor, we're going to need to go the extract route.  I used Watkins Banana Flavor because it's a decent banana flavoring, and it's readily available at most Walmart Supercenters.  You can also order it online direct from Watkins or through Amazon.  Another key part to getting a fresh fruit flavor is some added tartness.  You can get that using citric acid or you can add some lemon juice.  If you use lemon juice, try not to use too much because it will carry the lemon flavor with it.

You'll need:
1 tsp Watkins Banana Flavor
1 lb sugar + 1/2 to 1 cup of water for syrup
1 tsp citric acid or 2 tbsp Lemon Juice
top up to 1 gallon with carbonated water

Start by making your syrup, you can add some cream of tarter and boil to 240° to invert the sugar if you would like, or you can use your sugar as is.  Allow your syrup to cool  somewhat before you add the flavor and the citric acid.  One important thing to remember with flavorings is that they are usually mixed with an alcohol base which boils quickly and at a lower temperature than water.  It's not uncommon to pull your syrup off the stove, throw in your flavor and *POOF* it boils right off.  Of course that smells great right away, but it doesn't leave as much to linger in your finished beverage.  You also need to wait to add citric acid because it can burn easily and leave behind a bitter taste.  If you've ever used citric acid but it comes out bitter and you have no tart left, you've let it get too hot at some point.

Once the syrup has cooled, you can add it to the carbonated water by the glass, or in a larger bottle.  You can color it if you wish.  I find that about 4 drops of yellow and 1 drop of neon green looks great for banana.

Lessons Learned from a Homebrew Competition

So it’s been a couple weeks since I participated in Brewerie’s Homebrew Frest.  I’ve been tied up with some other things, but I wanted to share my interesting experience on dispensing soda at a beer event. I feel I've come out with a few lessons to learn from for next year, or for any other homebrew competition.

Being so busy pouring, this is the best picture I got of my setup.  Ginger Ale in bottles, kegs of root beer and coconut lime under the table.

Types of People

The event itself was not set up as a competition with judges like some homebrew events, but there were people’s choice awards.  It was $16 for a ticket, which gained you entry to the hall where brewers were set up to let you taste their wares.  With that in mind, there seem to be three types of people that attend a homebrew fest of this nature. 

The Guzzler:  The Guzzler is there to drink as much beer as he can to get the most bang for his buck.  He doesn’t care what variety it is or who is serving it.  He just wants beer.  I even had some Guzzlers come up to my table and just hold out their glass without even looking at what I had available.  I filled up one Guzzler’s glass with my ginger ale while he was talking to someone else, just holding out his glass to me.  It was a little awkward, and I still wonder what his first reaction was when he took that first sip.  I don’t know because he walked off before I could explain what it was. 

Connoisseurs-in-Training: The Connoisseur-in-Training (CIT) is there to explore the different tastes and to enjoy the social atmosphere.  They're the ones who enjoy craft beer, but don't care how it's made.  CITs don’t necessarily care what’s in the recipe, or what makes a certain style into what it is.  All they want to know is what style it is, possibly its ABV, and that's about it.  I would say this encompasses most of the people there.

The Homebrewer: What's a homebrew fest without homebrewers.  Most of the homebrewers there were busy showing of their pride and joy.  But there certainly are plenty there that get around to the other tables.  This being a "festival" rather than a full out "competition" the atmosphere was light and friendly rather than critical.

I guess there was a fourth type there, the Mormon boy in the corner serving sodas.  Yeah, that was me trying to sort of fit in.

Setup

Not having attended an event like this, I wasn't sure what to expect.  I've served my soda at church picnics before and have gone through it rather quickly on those occasions, so I wanted to plan for lot's more people.  I had three recipes on the entry form, and I thought that perhaps 10 gallons of each would probably get me through with a little bit left over.  I didn't fully realize that people are there merely to taste, not to drink full glasses.  So each serving was about 1/4 the size that I had in mind, and surprise, I only went through about 1/4 of what I had on hand.  Funny how that works out. 

I took two flavors in kegs, and one flavor bottled.  I would have liked to have had a Draft Box to hook the kegs up to, that would have been much easier, but I didn't want to go through that much expense and I didn’t have much time to build one. 

So the lesson here is make sure you plan your setup well ahead of time.  The bottles were great, and easy to pour from but added a lot more bulk to hauling things around.  The kegs took less trips back and forth from the car, but the picnic taps were drippy and sticky.  I also had to keep fiddling with my gauge to get the serving pressure right on one of the regulators, this could have been better planned.  Make sure you figure these things ahead of time before you go.

It's hard to say which is easier in the end.  I preferred serving from the bottles despite the extra work before with filling and after with cleaning.  If I had a draft box, I might be singing a different tune.

Be Ready for the Aftermath

Getting ready was a lot of work, but I enjoyed it.  However, having only gone through a fraction of what I had made, now I'm stuck with a lot more soda than I'd care to drink by myself in a short period of time.  And without preservatives or that much refrigerator space, I think I may be out of luck.  I hadn't thought about that.  Plus there's the cleaning of all the bottles, kegs, and tap lines.  Be sure you're ready to take care of it all when you're done.

Keep a good supply of CO2

My CO2 gauge took a beating during carbonation, so I thought I had more than I did.  So the lesson here is two-fold: 1)Don’t drop your gauges.  I’m not sure why I haven’t learned this one yet.  Even though I know how to fix them, it’s still a huge pain to deal with.  2) If you’re going to carbonate 7 kegs, make sure you have enough to serve them.  I ended up just barely squeezing by on the tank I had.  I served all that I needed to for the event, but it could have been a problem if I hadn’t

Have Fun

This is sort of a no brainer, but you’re there to enjoy the atmosphere and to share/develop your talent.  This isn’t the Olympics.  You’re not on international TV.  The only person you’re letting down by not winning anything is yourself, and it doesn’t have to be such a downer.  For me, it was fun to see grown people light up like little kids.  Some would timidly approach my table, but then light up when they tasted it, realizing that soda isn’t just for little kids.  Others would almost sneak over with a little smile like a 3yr old going for a cookie car.  A middle aged gentleman commented to me, “This is what ginger ale tasted like 50 years ago.”  He didn’t look much more than 50, and given his smile, I knew that was a quite a nostalgic trip down memory lane.  I couldn’t have hoped for a better compliment.

Be Open to Criticism

I liked the atmosphere that the Brewerie had created by making it a “festival” rather than a “competition.”  It made it feel like people were more appreciative of each other instead of competing against one another.  But I do feel like there is a place for constructive criticism.  Most of the comments I got in that regard were “This would be good with…” But I would have been open to much more.  I felt like this was an opportunity for me to test the waters and see how well my flavors were received.  I went with basic flavors because of the audience, and the fact that they’d never had a homebrewer present soda before.  So in a way, I almost wanted someone to come out and say, “It needs more root beer flavor,” (Because it sure did, unless I wanted to call it cream soda.) or “It’s a little on the sweet side, you may need to cut back a bit.”

Come Taste 2/23 at Brewerie!

This Saturday, Feb. 23rd, Brewerie is hosting it's annual FeBREWary Brewers Cup Homebrew Festival.  I guess it used to be a competition, but they figured that's not really what homebrew was all about, so it's a come-one, come-all celebration of homebrew with attendees voting on their favorite for the People's choice awards.

Back in December I asked them if they had any room for homebrewed sodas and they said they would love to have me as their first ever non-alcoholic participant and they said they thought it would go over quite well.

So, if you want to taste some of my recipes, here's what I'll have on tap:

-Fist Bump Root Beer - Caramel malt with a touch of molasses blend well with sassafras extract, burdock root, wintergreen and vanilla.

-Fist Bump Ginger Ale - A simple recipe using subtle ginger paste and a kick of lemon juice.  Featured in last summer's Quick Kegging Recipes post

-Lime in d'Coconut - One of my all time favorite recipes also featured on my Quick Kegging Recipes.

The leftovers will be available for tasting at our church's variety show later that evening, along with some other recipes made special for the event:
- Banana (soon to be posted)
- Lemon Mint Cooler
and a full keg Cherry Limeade Soda. (soon to be posted)

I'll post an update after the weekend is over with pictures.