Irn-Bru chew

[ScottM]

Went for this one today as promised a while back. Just a little experiment to see what Irn Bru is like fermented lol. Just went with 2l for now.

Irn Bru boiling to get rid of CO2 and Preservatives.

Checking out the SG. Actually reading 5 points high due to hydrometer not being very accurate.

Cooling down waiting to be yeasted.

Based on a corrected OG of 1.043 I reckon I should easily see 5.5-6% ABV.

 

[Gayle]

Very interesting! :thumb: I saw Irn-Bru on offer in a shop the other day and fermentation of it did spring to mind, but I wasn't brave enough to try! Do let us know how it works out.

 

[ScottM]

Will do :)

 

[screamlead]

Is that from a concentrate or fizzy bottles?

 

[ScottM]

2L fizzy bottle, hence boiling to remove CO2

 

[screamlead]

Obviously misread it lol - however - https://www.snowshock.com/product.php?id_product=21
Now that looks like a plan in the making! :thumb:

 

[ScottM]

Ooooo that could be really good. I could also kill off the yeast with potassium, and then sweeten it up to make a slush drink.

 

[ScottM]

Well it's finished. I actually thought fermentation had stalled so I added a little more yeast and more nutrient. Was about to give up the ghost when I decided to take a reading and see where it was at... 0.997 lol.

I guess the ole super wine yeast made very quick work of it. By my calculations that should see around 6%.

I'm going to stick it out the way, in the cool, for a bit but I'll need to decide what to do with it. My 3 options are:

Leave it dry and secondary in the bottle as normal.
Sweeten with artificial sweetener and secondary in the bottle as normal.
Kill with potassium sorbate, sweeten with sugar and carbonate in a sodastream.

Thoughts?

 

[Gayle]

I've neevr tried carbonating alcoholic drinks with a soda stream, but I've heard it can be a bit ... messy...

Does Irn Bru have artificial sweetners? If so then it might be sweet enough, if not then I'd probably add them and carbonate in the bottle. I don't think it would be nice flat, but that's up to you! Maybe do half dry and half with sweetner to see what you like for future brews?

 

[calumscott]

It's all sugar in Irn Bru.

I think I would go the easy way and use splenda and carb in the bottle...

 

[ScottM]

I had a very scary thought about this today.

Irn Bru contains 10.5g per 100ml, therefore 105g per litre. In total that means the original 2L contained 210g of sugar. If we assume 5g per tsp that would equate to 42 tsp of sugar required to match the sweetness. As I understand it splenda is to be served at 1tsp per serving, like sugar, so I'm going to need 42tsp of splenda to sweeten this stuff? 10tsp per pint :shock:

I came home and transferred it into a clean FV to store up the loft for a bit to clear. I had a taste and it was like muddy water, absolutely disgusting. I'll get some splenda over the weekend and prepare to bottle. 10tsp per bottle just sounds insane but I'm game

 

[no1troyboy]

Obviously misread it lol - however - https://www.snowshock.com/product.php?id_product=21
Now that looks like a plan in the making! :thumb:

if your gonna do this one be carefull af adding more sugar i make my own sauce for ice cream toppings and they ave a kelo os sugar to a ltr of water but could be amazing :rofl:

 

[Gayle]

Hopefully you don't need 10 tsp splenda per pint, it's not cheap stuff! Apple juice has around the same amount of sugars per 100ml before fermentation, and wouldn't need 10tsp to sweeten. One or two should be fine, you don't want to oversweeten - you can always add a little extra sugar or sweetener in the glass when drinking, and remember for next time how much was needed :)

 

[calumscott]

Yeah, my ginger beer was hellish dry and it got 3-4 tsp splenda per litre and that's just right. You'll want this sweeter I reckon so maybe 6 or 7 per litre?

 

[ScottM]

Hopefully you don't need 10 tsp splenda per pint, it's not cheap stuff! Apple juice has around the same amount of sugars per 100ml before fermentation, and wouldn't need 10tsp to sweeten. One or two should be fine, you don't want to oversweeten - you can always add a little extra sugar or sweetener in the glass when drinking, and remember for next time how much was needed :)

I reckon it would surprise you what it would need. All these kinds of drinks depend on their sweetness to make them taste like anything good at all. I prefer fermenting apple juice dry and leaving it like that, as the cider taste is lovely. This taste is just god awful. I just hope there's enough of the Irn-Bru flavour left to actually give substance to go along with the added sweetness

Yeah, my ginger beer was hellish dry and it got 3-4 tsp splenda per litre and that's just right. You'll want this sweeter I reckon so maybe 6 or 7 per litre?

Yeah that's what I'm thinking. I also had one hell of a time with the ginger beer, as these things all have sugar oozing out of them. I think I'll try a 4 an 8 and a 12 tsp to see what I end up with. I only have 3 pints anyway

The thing is, it'll need to beat straight up Irn-Bru with vodka. If it doesn't then its entirely pointless as cheap ass vodka tastes the same as good vodka when mixed to normal drinking levels.

 

[ScottM]

I've got a sodastream coming today so I think I'll give one bottle a little go with sugar and see what its like. From that I'm guessing I'll be able to tell if it's worthwhile or not

 

[calumscott]

I've got a sodastream coming today so I think I'll give one bottle a little go with sugar and see what its like. From that I'm guessing I'll be able to tell if it's worthwhile or not

We want pictures of the resulting mess!!! :rofl:

 

[ScottM]

I've got a sodastream coming today so I think I'll give one bottle a little go with sugar and see what its like. From that I'm guessing I'll be able to tell if it's worthwhile or not

We want pictures of the resulting mess!!! :rofl:

Do you think it'll go wrong? I understand that a beer or something with a bit of body would possibly go **** up, but surely a syrupy drink (much like normal sodastream drinks) should be ok?

Regardless, I'll have the camera on standby

 

[ScottM]

Ok I went for it and I must admit, I'm glad you guys told me about the potential problems before I blazed in.

I'm not sure it would have went TOO badly, but it looked a little angry to start off

I let it settle, took it off with a nice FIZZ and then sealed it up and stuck it in the fridge. The CO2 bubbles were huge, as you would expect, so hopefully they will get a bit smaller while in the fridge :)

I'm not expecting much from this at all but I'm glad that I got the sodastream, will make way for some more cookey experiments

 

[ScottM]

And the results are in!!

I honestly can't believe this worked. It tastes exactly like vodka and Irn Bru... all be it a strong voddy and Irn Bru lol.

The fizz is EXACLY like IrnBru. In fact there is literally no difference between it and irn bru with a double shot of vodka.

Shockeroonie. This has all been done from start to finish in 4 days :shock:

I've got a pic and a vid of it to post up in a bit.

Costs.....

2L Irn-Bru £1.50 (4L for £2 when on offer)
Sugar 10p per 100g, 200g used in 2L
Super Yeast 1/2 tsp
Nutrient 1/2 tsp

Call it £1 per litre.

Cheap bottle of vodka = £8. In order to match 6% abv in 1L you would need 60ml of alcohol. With most vodkas being 40% alcohol this would mean 150ml of vodka per L of bru. So.... 4.5L per bottle of vodka, including the Irn Bru at £2 this would make it an even tenner(ish).

4L of this irn bru mix would work out less than £3, so maybe it would be worth it afterall.