Creamed yeast

[Dog Breath]

Seeing as I'm on a self imposed abstenence, I've recently come across some pretty damn good soft drinks (Heresy, I hear you say) made by an outfit called Fentiman's (from Oop North). Their Victorian Lemonade is really quite remarkable so it got me looking into some old lemonade & ginger beer recipes.

In my oldest of old cook books (Constance Spry), she mentions about creaming yeast. I have further found reference that it is mixed to a paste with sugar but the quantities I am unsure of and can only assume she is refering to bread yeast and not brewers yeast.

The reason I am hesitant is that I know what bread yeast can do when it comes to fermenting drinks if it isn't done correctly. A friend & I had a most unfortunate incident with 50 plastic bottles filled with "sparkling" elderflower champagne (less said about that the better but let's just say we had to shoot the tops off the bottles with our air rifles).

That aside, I'd sincerely appreciate any info any of you experienced old hands can offer in relation to fermenting drinks to get that gentle bubbliness without becoming an alcoholic beverage. I was under the impression that yeast, when fermented in a drink with sugar, turns the drink alcoholic but what do I know?

There! A typical newbie post from a know-nothing newbie. So when you've managed to regain control of your water I'd be sincerely grateful for any constructive replies.

 

[evanvine]

You can't do it!
Yeast + sugar = alcohol!

 

[Dog Breath]

Thank you. Just as I thought, but wanted to be sure. So how does one get a fizz in a soft drink without adding carbonated water?

 

[Hawks]

You could force carbonate with CO2 - such as a sodastream, or a corny and a gas cylinder :thumb:

 

[Dog Breath]

Trouble with carbonating with CO2 is you get bigger bubbles (don't you?). Carbonating with yeast produces smaller bubbles. I recall an Italian restrantuer telling me about Italian sparkiling wine and how miffed they were at the French for stealing their idea and claiming it as their own (nothing new there then). Again, I digress. His point was that when the wine is bottled they put just a tiny amount of yeast in to the bottle to give it this gentle fizz.