Soda fermentation time

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Soda fermentation time

Postby Annoyeddragon on Mon May 28, 2018 5:10 am

I had a batch of rhubarb soda stay flat on me, so I've made a test batch to adjust sugar/ginger bug quantities to try and get it right. It's been encouraging so far as there is more bubbles over night than I've gotten in two days from the first batch. But with it being a small test quantity (275ml bottle) should it still get the full two days fermentation time, or is a day enough?
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Re: Soda fermentation time

Postby Annoyeddragon on Mon May 28, 2018 3:22 pm

In answering my own question, it's so fizzy after one hot day that I think it's best not to let it ferment for another ^_^;

Surprising just how carbonated this process can make things, way more than a typical soda.
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Re: Soda fermentation time

Postby Christopher Weeks on Tue May 29, 2018 8:31 am

It's been a few years since I was last brewing soda, but my recollection was leaving it a few days, not just one or two, but I always bottle one in plastic so that I can know when the pressure has built up enough to refrigerate and start drinking.
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Re: Soda fermentation time

Postby Annoyeddragon on Wed May 30, 2018 7:12 am

I used carton apple juice in the small bottle because I had no luck with my self made rhubarb batch (allotment grown, no pesticides). It was surprising how vigorously it carbonated in such a short while, which had me hopeful. So I made some lemonade with the second go, which thus far has also failed to carbonate :/

So I tested a carton juice again, this time pineapple straight out the fridge, and it was bubbling before the days end.

I'm really not sure what I'm doing wrong with the self made batches for them not to work, the carton juice proves the ginger bug is working. I'm using non-chlorinated bottled water, the same stuff works just fine to top up the ginger bug and made brine to ferment cucumber slices without problem. It can't be the sugar, the ginger bug is doing fine on it.

I'm going to let my ginger bug recover a few days then try again using a water filter. If it's not the water, then I'm not sure what's going on.
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Re: Soda fermentation time

Postby Christopher Weeks on Wed May 30, 2018 9:15 am

I wouldn't be surprised if lemonade is hard because of low pH -- maybe leave it a long time to see if it picks up after a while. But I've had a hard time with making hard cider from commercial apple juice because of the preservatives killing the yeast, so I'd expect to hear that was hard -- but that's the opposite of what you're seeing.

Are the carton drinks much more sugary than the stuff you're making?
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Re: Soda fermentation time

Postby Annoyeddragon on Wed May 30, 2018 9:34 am

The rhubarb was 8.8 grams of sugar per 100ml, which after the success of the apple juice; I increased to 10 grams per for the lemonade. The pineapple juice has 13 grams per, I didn't pick it specifically it just happened to be in the fridge.

Both the cartoned juices are from concentrate and don't list any preservatives, so there is probably nothing in them to inhibit microbes. Didn't even wait for them to reach room temperature, just poured them in the bottles with some ginger bug and off they went.

It's frustrating that it works so well with processed fruit juice out of a packet, but my home made drinks are doing zilch... I'll give the lemonade a couple more days and hopefully it will do something.
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Re: Soda fermentation time

Postby Annoyeddragon on Fri Jun 01, 2018 4:05 am

So this puts things in perspective... Yesterday I went out and bought a carton of apple juice, at 3:30pm I mixed in the ginger bug and squeeze the bottle to remove the air. 10am the very next day, it had pumped itself up with fermentation.

My lemonade in contrast has continued to do nothing.

I'll give the ginger bug time to recover from being watered down, then I'll try filtering tap water rather than using bottled. If that isn't the problem, I simply don't know why my self made ones aren't working.
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