Mother of Vinegar

10/11/2006 -- I'm interested in bottling my own soda, but for now am looking at the best way to go. I know you had mentioned in a previous question the yeast method or CO2 method. Both seem expensive and time consuming. Do these carbonation drop do the trick? Say for instance I add drop mix, some sugar, then a carbonation drop and fill with water and cap. Is that's all that's needed? How much sugar is in the drops? Is there a noticeable difference in taste? Also, would you stick to recommending corn sugar for soft drinks, or is cane sugar the better route, as the cidery taste is probably not there in soft drinks.

Response From The Home Brew Store Dot Com: The CO2 option can be expensive, even using the handheld charger in lieu of the CO2 tank and fittings.

The yeast method is actually very inexpensive, but time consuming as it requires you to very carefully slip a few grains of yeast into each bottle. This is different from carbonating beer, because with beer the yeast is already in solution and you are blending sugar for the yeast to feed on. If the sugar isn't blended evenly, the results aren't too far off. With the soda, it's exactly the opposite. The sugar is in solution and you have to introduce the yeast. You can't do it in the bottling bucket because you don't have enough yeast cells, and because you risk fermentation.

Adding the carbonation drops will not have any benefit. They are concentrated sugar, but with no yeast - so you still have to add yeast.

I recommend cane sugar for the soda pop. The cidery flavor in beer comes from the fermentation, which should not take place in a properly capped soda pop bottle.

9/2/2005 -- Can you tell me how much and what type of sugar I need to make Pepsi Cola?

Response From The Home Brew Store Dot Com: Cola extracts can be blended with any basic sugar and water to make cola. Table sugar (beet or sugar cane) work best. Corn sugar is an acceptable substitute. You would need one pound of sugar for each gallon of cola.

7/26/2005 -- How much wine do you use for one container of mother to make vinegar?

Response From The Home Brew Store Dot Com: The mother of vinegar we sell will comfortably make 2 to 4 quarts of vinegar at a time. However, this is a deceptive figure, since vinegar works much the same way as sourdough or brandied fruit - as you siphon off the finished vinegar and set it aside to age, you can pour fresh wine in on top of the same mother and have it continue its work. A mother could easily produce several gallons - the only limiting factor would be how fast you would need the finished product.

4/22/2005 -- Do you have a kit for bottling soda pop? Do you have a 20-lb Co2 tank?

Response From The Home Brew Store Dot Com: We do have the equipment necessary to bottle soda pop. There are two ways to do it - through bottle conditioning (using yeast to carbonate the soda in the bottle) or force carbonation (using co2 to carbonate soda pop in the keg and bottle from the keg.) Bottling equipment for the first method runs about $25-$30 (bottling bucket, plastic hose with bottling wand, capper.) The bottling equipment for force carbonation is exactly the same as for beer - a co2 tank, cornelius keg, counterpressure bottle filler, hoses and connectors, and capper - total for all would be near $300.

We currently only carry the 5-pound co2 tank. However, I can ask our supplier about the availability of a 20-pound tank. In the past, we have generally recommended using a tank-exchange service (available at most propane/natural gas dealers) due to the expense of maintaining the tanks.

4/5/2005 -- Will you ship this product to Canada?

Response From The Home Brew Store Dot Com: Yes