After a few days in the fridge I can give an honest assessment of my latest odd experiment. It's very cinnamony. It's really delicious, but it feels like it's missing something. It's completely absent of cherry flavor-I was a little surprised by this as it was quite strong in the initial brew before bottling, but it faded after the yeast took hold. Which is a bit odd, because usually aging helps bring out all the flavors of the ingredients.
Next time around I will need to use cherry juice. Failing that I'll be using a lot more almond extract, and I think some raisins and citric acid will add a nice touch to final product.
There is one thing I believe this soda will excel in, however, and that's when it's mixed with a scoop or two of ice cream-vanilla might be best, but I'm sure it would give a nice flavor with chocolate for all of you chocolate lovers out there.
The fun thing about experimenting with your own homemade soda is learning about new flavor possibilities you would have otherwise never discovered. I was hoping for a very sweet and spicy soda here, and what I got ended up tasting much like cinnamon toast. It's good, mind you, but it's not what I expected. Maybe I should go back and label this as "Cinnamon Fizz", but I think in the interest of consistency I should just leave well enough alone and revisit the idea with the added ingredients.
I have another couple of projects lined up, and look forward to making them this weekend. I should have plenty of time as the fam-damily is heading out on a camping trip sans me.
Click here for the recipe behind this drink
Click here for the first part of the follow up.
Showing posts with label cherry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cherry. Show all posts
Friday, August 12, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Homemade Cinnamon-Cherry Fizz Follow Up The First
After 4 days I've finally gotten a bit of carbonation out of the batch of Cinnamon-Cherry Fizz I made.
The first two tester bottles I opened(the first after 48 hours, the second after 72) had no fizz and slight fizz(respectively), and excellent cinnamon flavor-but no cherry flavor that I could detect. That might come out in the refrigeration though, so we'll see.
This morning, however, I checked a third bottle and was greeted with a slight bubble-rush to hint towards the slight bit of carbonation that was already present. Last time this happened I waited 12 hours and popped the bottles in the fridge to be met with a perfect amount of fizz upon letting it stand.
This will be another two part follow-up, as I will definitely revisit, review and add my thoughts about improving the batch if necessary. However, this batch has given me some new information. I have previously made mention of fiberglass-flavors in sodas. I always thought the culprit was too much cinnamon, or it's chemical reaction with the yeast, however, I'm now thinking it is almost exclusively the fault of the yeast.
I made my cream soda from scratch and ended up with that funky fiberglass taste, although in smaller doses then my first attempt. I also used my champagne yeast for that. Lo and behold, I made a quickie batch of cream soda from extract for my wife(whom didn't care for my homemade root beer at all), and used the rest of the champagne yeast. It never carbonated. Which leads me to believe that the fiberglass flavor in my homemade sodas of the past has come from "spoiled" yeast. If it's at the end of it's shelf life, it may produce some weird flavors in combination with it's ingredients. Considering I used the same exact yeast a mere week after the previous batch(which carbonated just fine, but with weird off-flavors), I'm thinking the yeast was at the end of it's viability-it may have been expired(I cut the expiration date off opening the package).
The first cause of off-tasting beverage is generally spoilage brought on by bacteria from improperly sanitized bottles/equipment. However, I did a thorough job of that on my cream soda, and had on the 3 previous batches I had made that I recalled getting the off-flavor with.
Long story short-make sure your yeast is fresh and used within a month of opening it.
Considering I had no off-flavors with this batch(which consists mainly of cinnamon-and lots of it), I can safely say that cinnamon is not the culprit-and thank goodness for that-cinnamon is tasty.
Recipe: Homemade Cinnamon-Cherry Fizz
The first two tester bottles I opened(the first after 48 hours, the second after 72) had no fizz and slight fizz(respectively), and excellent cinnamon flavor-but no cherry flavor that I could detect. That might come out in the refrigeration though, so we'll see.
This morning, however, I checked a third bottle and was greeted with a slight bubble-rush to hint towards the slight bit of carbonation that was already present. Last time this happened I waited 12 hours and popped the bottles in the fridge to be met with a perfect amount of fizz upon letting it stand.
This will be another two part follow-up, as I will definitely revisit, review and add my thoughts about improving the batch if necessary. However, this batch has given me some new information. I have previously made mention of fiberglass-flavors in sodas. I always thought the culprit was too much cinnamon, or it's chemical reaction with the yeast, however, I'm now thinking it is almost exclusively the fault of the yeast.
I made my cream soda from scratch and ended up with that funky fiberglass taste, although in smaller doses then my first attempt. I also used my champagne yeast for that. Lo and behold, I made a quickie batch of cream soda from extract for my wife(whom didn't care for my homemade root beer at all), and used the rest of the champagne yeast. It never carbonated. Which leads me to believe that the fiberglass flavor in my homemade sodas of the past has come from "spoiled" yeast. If it's at the end of it's shelf life, it may produce some weird flavors in combination with it's ingredients. Considering I used the same exact yeast a mere week after the previous batch(which carbonated just fine, but with weird off-flavors), I'm thinking the yeast was at the end of it's viability-it may have been expired(I cut the expiration date off opening the package).
The first cause of off-tasting beverage is generally spoilage brought on by bacteria from improperly sanitized bottles/equipment. However, I did a thorough job of that on my cream soda, and had on the 3 previous batches I had made that I recalled getting the off-flavor with.
Long story short-make sure your yeast is fresh and used within a month of opening it.
Considering I had no off-flavors with this batch(which consists mainly of cinnamon-and lots of it), I can safely say that cinnamon is not the culprit-and thank goodness for that-cinnamon is tasty.
Recipe: Homemade Cinnamon-Cherry Fizz
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Recipe: Homemade Cinnamon-Cherry Fizz
I got the idea for this soda when trying to figure out a use for the Almond extract I originally picked up with the intention of using it in my cream soda. I never used it for my cream soda, but alas, I found another ingredient I thought would pair well with it-cinnamon. The spiciness of the cinnamon paired with the sweetness of the almond extract sounded quite delightful to me. Anyone who has ever used almond extract for any reason, however, knows that almond extract smells much like maraschino cherries. This is understandable, as almond trees belong to the prunus species-which includes peaches, prunes, plums, and cherries. Fun fact-almonds are not actually nuts-they are seeds. They're an edible cousin to the notorious peach pit. Another fun fact-Coca Cola company uses almond extract to flavor their Cherry Coke.
Anyways, I decided I wanted to make a cinnamon-cherry soda, but I didn't have any cherry juice available to me(maybe next time), so I proceeded with cinnamon sticks and almond extract.
The important thing to keep in mind about extracts is that they will lose their potency if put in too hot of water, so you will not be using the extract during the brewing process-it'll come later. On to the recipe...
4 x 3 inch Cinnamon Sticks
1/2 tsp. Almond extract
2 cups Sugar
1 gallon water
1/8 tsp. Ale yeast
Fill a stock pot with about 2 quarts of water and the cinnamon sticks. Put the water on med-high heat, bring to a simmer and let simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.
Remove from heat, stir in the sugar, cover and let steep for another 20 minutes.
Pour in the other 2 quarts of water, mix in and check the temperature. If it's around 100 degrees fahrenheit, stir in your almond extract 1/4 tsp. at a time.
Put 1/8 tsp. of yeast in a coffee cup(or measuring cup you used for sugar) with 2 oz. warm water, stir and let sit for 5 minutes.
Ideally, you'll want your brew water to be between 80-90 degrees. Stir in your yeast water and bottle.
This ended up being my first batch of homemade soda that a gallon batch actually filled 11 12 oz. bottles-and 8 oz. leftover to sample the brew. Usually I get about 10 12 oz. bottles with an 8 oz. tester bottle leftover. I think dividing the water in half in the brew process helps retain more of the water as not as much gets lost due to evaporation.
The tester glass tasted amazing-it was sweet, slightly tart and a but spicy. It reminded me of a cherry crisp. I'm anticipating popping open a bottle in 2 days to check out how it's coming along. I'll let you know how it goes.
Anyways, I decided I wanted to make a cinnamon-cherry soda, but I didn't have any cherry juice available to me(maybe next time), so I proceeded with cinnamon sticks and almond extract.
The important thing to keep in mind about extracts is that they will lose their potency if put in too hot of water, so you will not be using the extract during the brewing process-it'll come later. On to the recipe...
4 x 3 inch Cinnamon Sticks
1/2 tsp. Almond extract
2 cups Sugar
1 gallon water
1/8 tsp. Ale yeast
Fill a stock pot with about 2 quarts of water and the cinnamon sticks. Put the water on med-high heat, bring to a simmer and let simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.
Remove from heat, stir in the sugar, cover and let steep for another 20 minutes.
Pour in the other 2 quarts of water, mix in and check the temperature. If it's around 100 degrees fahrenheit, stir in your almond extract 1/4 tsp. at a time.
Put 1/8 tsp. of yeast in a coffee cup(or measuring cup you used for sugar) with 2 oz. warm water, stir and let sit for 5 minutes.
Ideally, you'll want your brew water to be between 80-90 degrees. Stir in your yeast water and bottle.
This ended up being my first batch of homemade soda that a gallon batch actually filled 11 12 oz. bottles-and 8 oz. leftover to sample the brew. Usually I get about 10 12 oz. bottles with an 8 oz. tester bottle leftover. I think dividing the water in half in the brew process helps retain more of the water as not as much gets lost due to evaporation.
The tester glass tasted amazing-it was sweet, slightly tart and a but spicy. It reminded me of a cherry crisp. I'm anticipating popping open a bottle in 2 days to check out how it's coming along. I'll let you know how it goes.
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