convert soda steam into alcohol?

[Nightmare-Rex]

hey i don't know where this would go but since it is "Wine, Cider & OTHER Home Brewing Talk" I thought would ask here. i made apple cider a week ago but i always like best sweet drinks such as margaritas mikes hard eta. i was wondering can you ferment soda stream soda mix into alcohol? would i need yeast nutrients? it is ingredients in most of them are sugar, (not High froc CS) coloring (varys for flavor) natural flavor phosphoric acid acesulfame potassium sucrose, some have caffeine and sodium benzoate.

i am aware others asked about soda to alcohol soda but since they were asking about ones with high froc corn syrup would it work?

 

[Moley]

Welcome to the forum :

Two obvious problems I can see with SodaStream concentrates:

1. They contain non-fermentable artificial sweeteners. I know you said you like sweet drinks but these could end up very sweet indeed!
2. They are full of preservatives. Sodium Benzoate is used as a wine stabiliser to prevent fermentation in the bottles.

Now if you wanted to ferment a neutral wine or sugar wash and then add SodaStream concentrates, and maybe even fizz up the resultant alcopop, that's a different matter.

 

[oldbloke]

I vaguely recall a thread from some time back about using Sodastream concentrates to flavour a fermented sugar solution (kliju, kilju, can never remember) but I don't think anybody's suggested using them as the base for fermenting - the sodium benzoate may annoy the yeast, I think
The fruit syrups from the Polish delis are a better bet

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Nightmare-Rex you can make wine out of supermarket juice and it will taste of whatever you decide to use and you will not have the preservative problem, if you like it fizzy don't degas the wine at the end.
There is a thread on how to make them, recipes and comments from forum members here - viewtopic.php?f=41&t=39846


.

 

[Scalli]

I did think about getting a soda stream and using it with one of those turbo yeast kits. I have made up a turbo yeast wash before but was put off by the cost of the flavourings and thought using a soda stream to make a very strong alcopop might be a good idea.

There is a place on ebay who sell post mix syrup getting close to its sell by date for £12, a lot cheaper than the soda stream flavourings.

 

[Nightmare-Rex]

i found one that doesn't have sodium ben, but it has potassium sorbate. is there a way to make potent alcohol from water sugar yeast and some yeast nutrient of some sort? i thought it would be nice to have pure ethanol alcohol somehow and can drop it into the soda or any other drink of choice. and rarely have juice in house, and even more rare for it to not have preservatives other than vitamin c. i am poor tho so last fermentation was done in a heavily cleaned milk jug :/. cant afford to drop 50$ for a pro kit.

if there were maby some easy way to extract the alcohol from the fermentation, and keep adding sugar and yeast nutrients, so then the yeast doesn't die and can have an "alcohol generator" i guess you would call it. but probably no "ghetto way" to extract alc from stuff without killing the yeast.

 

[oldbloke]

The trouble with fermenting just sugar is that it tastes crap, especially if you use the high alcohol turbo yeasts. It needs carbon filtering and then addition of flavourings.
A 5l bottle of water from a supermarket makes a great fermenter - better than a cleaned out milk container! And the water can be part of your brew.
If you want something strong, use something like Gervin's high tolerance yeast and make a wine that's 18 or 19% - just drink twice as much as you would if it was spirits.

 

[Scalli]

Have to agree, the taste of the turbo yeast sugar stuff tastes crap. I bought a kit a few years ago and couldn't find anything to start with to flavour it. I did find mixing it 50/50 with the cheap bianco wine you get in Asda produced something that tasted like Thunderbird (go on, who remembers that)

 

[Hawks]

Thunderbird (go on, who remembers that)

Red or blue label ?? That brought back memories, most of them messy... :sick:

 

[joe1002]

I vaguely recall a thread from some time back about using Sodastream concentrates to flavour a fermented sugar solution (kliju, kilju, can never remember) but I don't think anybody's suggested using them as the base for fermenting - the sodium benzoate may annoy the yeast, I think
The fruit syrups from the Polish delis are a better bet

I think you may be recalling Alco~Coke :thumb:

 

[neilpcraven]

A long time ago when I was far too young to do this properly, I made some rice wine. It was terrible. I found out later that my brother was sabotaging it by pouring Irn bru concentrate into it. (I am sure it would have been terrible anyway).




DirtyCaner drank most of it.

 

[Nightmare-Rex]

k i'm back on haven't been on for a while so suppose cant do it with flavors without that annoying sodium ben?

 

[ZeekeOne]

I did think about getting a soda stream and using it with one of those turbo yeast kits. I have made up a turbo yeast wash before but was put off by the cost of the flavourings and thought using a soda stream to make a very strong alcopop might be a good idea.

There is a place on ebay who sell post mix syrup getting close to its sell by date for £12, a lot cheaper than the soda stream flavourings.

Post mix syrup is about 4 dollars Aussie in Woolies and Coles 12 bucks is BLOODY expensive

 

[MashBag]

hey i don't know where this would go but since it is "Wine, Cider & OTHER Home Brewing Talk" I thought would ask here. i made apple cider a week ago but i always like best sweet drinks such as margaritas mikes hard eta. i was wondering can you ferment soda stream soda mix into alcohol? would i need yeast nutrients? it is ingredients in most of them are sugar, (not High froc CS) coloring (varys for flavor) natural flavor phosphoric acid acesulfame potassium sucrose, some have caffeine and sodium benzoate.

i am aware others asked about soda to alcohol soda but since they were asking about ones with high froc corn syrup would it work?

Welcome.

Let's do this another way. What do you want to make?