Grapefruit Soda Recipe

GRAPEFRUIT SODA RECIPE

How to Make Grapefruit Soda

Grapefruit Soda is the tart, bitter and delicious soda you need for you need for your Paloma. It doesn’t take much in the way of ingredients, but it’s bracing flavor will wake up your mouth. It’s great with tequila. It really sings with gin.

Description of the Item

  • Style – Brewed Champagne Yeast
  • Flavor – Grapefruit
  • Yeast – Champagne Yeast

Making soda is brewing in it’s simplest form. If you are curious about brewing beer, but your face hasn’t reached peak beard, this is a great place to start.

Yes, you can make a syrup and force carbonate your grapefruit soda. There is a unique flavor that comes with brewing soda using Champagne yeast. The flavors are more tightly integrated with the soda flavors and the yeast adds it own distinct flavor.

Grapefruit Flavor Compounds

  • Tart
  • Bitter

Grapefruit is a fantastic, complex flavor. Like its citrus cousins, oranges, lemons, and limes, grapefruit get a lot of it’s flavor from citric acid. In addition, grapefruit has a number of complex flavor compounds.

The delicious fruit is surprisingly rich in the savory glutamate compound which is more commonly found in tomatoes. You will also find it has a number of flowery lavender type aromas. It also has a bit of a musky sulphurous odor.

Grapefruit Soda Ingredients

Fresh Squeezed Grapefruit Juice

No need to get fussy here. Whatever grapefruit you like will be just fine. If you want to use juice you can do that too. Of course, fresh squeezed from good ripe fruit will give you the best taste.

Sugar

White granulated sugar works well. If you want to substitute brown sugar or turbinado you will get a richer caramel flavor.

Water

Assuming you have good tasting clean tap water that will work. If you are concerned with the quality of your water you can use bottled mineral water.

Champagne yeast

Champagne yeast is available at any place that sells homebrewing supplies. It is the best choice for making soda because it is reliable and forgiving. It is also flavor neutral, so it won’t affect the flavor of your soda.

Ale yeast is a decent alternative. It shares a number of the same qualities as champagne yeast. It will develop a more distinct flavor, but it is not unpleasant.

If you really can’t find yeast for brewing, baker’s yeast will do the trick. It will, however, give your soda a distinctly yeasty flavor.

Method

Fresh brewed sodas are pretty easy to make. Grab some fresh fruit from the farmer’s market and you can have delicious fizzy soda this time tomorrow. You can mix up your flavors with roots, barks, spice and herbs. Anything is fair game. Just follow a few simple steps to success.

  1. Most of the time you will start by making a flavored syrup base.
  2. Let that cool and add your fruit juice. In this case we are using grapefruit. The amount you add can vary according to your taste. Less fruit will give you a light and refreshing fizzy drink. More fruit will give you something closer to a cider.
  3. You will now have a cooled grapefruit syrup. Pour the grapefruit syrup into a plastic bottle.
  4. Spoon the yeast into the top of the bottle.. Cap the bottle and give it a good shake.
  5. Let it sit for 12 – 48 hours. This is when the yeast is working its magic. Give the bottle a squeeze. When it is rock hard it is ready to drink.
  6. Stick it in the fridge. Chilling the soda slows down the activity of the yeast. If you leave it at room temperature it will continue to get fizzier.

RECIPE

Grapefruit Soda Recipe

  • 1 cup water
  • 9 tbsp sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • Black pepper
  • 4 cups of fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
  • ⅛ teaspoon dry champagne yeast
  1. Make a simple syrup by simmering sugar and water over medium low heat until sugar is dissolved.
  2. Let the syrup cool and combine it with the grapefruit juice.
  3. Using a funnel, pour the syrup into a clean 2 liter plastic bottle.
  4. Fill the bottle with water, leaving at least 1 inch of headspace at the top.
  5. Add the yeast to the bottle. Cap it, and shake it up to mix up the yeast.
  6. Let the bottle sit at room temperature for 12 to 48 hours. Check the bottle periodically. When it feels solid and has very little give it is ready.
  7. Refrigerate overnight. It will keep for up to 2 weeks.
  8. Unscrew the cap slightly every day to relieve pressure. Open it slowly to avoid a fountain.

Tips

  • Plastic bottles – 2 liter plastic bottles are good because you can feel how much pressure is building up in the bottle.
  • Glass or Swing top bottles – If you decide to use glass bottle be sure they are made to handle carbonated beverages. If they aren’t thick enough to hold the pressure they can explode sending glass shards flying.

Notes

  • Living yeast
  • Keep refrigerated
  • Paloma

Try This

  • Black pepper
  • Cinnamon
  • Lavender
  • Saffron
  • Brown sugar

Make Your Own Bitters: The Guide

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam.

Strawberry Bitters Recipe

Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident.

Cola Bitters Recipe – Put a Cocktail in Your Cocktail.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.