Comments on: Homemade Rhubarb Soda

By: Annette Cottrell

Annette Cottrell — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 06:06:08 +0000

Hi Barbara,

Anytime you want to keep the alcohol from escaping you tightly cap fermented drinks. If you don’t want it to become alcoholic loosely cover it. You always need to check on tightly capped things, which is why even beer has an expiration date. It’s not so much that it will go bad bottled but that the bottles might explode!

What you might do instead is juice and freeze the rhubarb and then you can make it all winter long. That might be safer. I’m so glad you are having fun!

By: Barbara

Barbara — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 21:31:52 +0000

Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe! I made some soda for the first time last week and had a rather interesting result. I left one bottle with the cap put on by hand, then used a bottle capper to actually seal the other 4. The one not sealed was a wonderful soda, yeastie tasting and mildly carbonated. Just opened a capped one and it bubbled up and out of the bottle like champagne, smelled and tasted like alcohol, though still delicious.

Now I am wondering how I ended up with alcohol rather than soda… maybe the alcohol evaporates when not sealed tightly. Also wondering if the caps are sealed, would the stuff be able to be stored to drink over the winter when there is no rhubarb to be had… or would there just be too much fermentation happening that the bottles would explode after awhile? May just have to do a test batch and see what happens. Am having a lot of fun with this!

By: Weekly Recipe Wrap Up – The “I’ve Been a Slacker Edition” | Delicious Obsessions

Sat, 07 May 2011 11:29:24 +0000

[...] Homemade Rhubarb Soda – It’s not just for pie! It’s for soda too! I’m so intrigued by this recipe that I can’t wait to get my hands on some rhubarb so I can make some. [...]

By: Visions of Sugar Plums Danced in Their Heads

Visions of Sugar Plums Danced in Their Heads — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 03:23:07 +0000

[...] in a dehydrator or on a rack in a low oven. Save the cooled syrup to use for making homemade plum soda from a ginger bug. or to brush cooling [...]

By: Anna Katherine

Anna Katherine — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 07:01:50 +0000

this sounds glorious. I grew up on sweet tea which turned into a soda habit and though now I just drink green tea I miss a good soda! And love the idea of the probiotics.

By: admin

admin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:34:20 +0000

Mary absolutely! We made blackberry/lemon verbena, quince, rootbeer and cherry last year with the ginger bug. They were all yummy. It’s not something we have all the time because of the sugar required to keep the bug going but it’s easy to start a new bug or keep one going for quite awhile should you want to. Somehow I never made it around to making ginger beer from it which is to bad. Maybe this summer.

By: Mary M

Mary M — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:16:19 +0000

I won’t have much rhubarb this year as I just put in new plants last year. The rhubarb fizz sounds great, could you use grapes or black berries in place of the rhubarb? I have a good crop of those and am always looking for ways to use them other than fresh or frozen.

By: admin

admin — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:23:01 +0000

Lawrence, I don’t think adding probiotics could hurt, or whey for that matter although I’ve never done it. I do know someone who uses them to do their fermented veggies so they get by with less salt so in theory it should work. I’d love to hear though because I do know a few folks whose bug has gone moldy although that’s never happened to me.

The bug needs sugar to grow and sucanat would overpower it but if you were making something like apricot or cherry that might be yummy. I don’t think xylitol would feed it but agave might. I think there was some discussion in that original link about which types of sugar work. I know honey does not because of the antibacterial properties of the honey destroying the good beasties in the bug.

Cane juce would work great, I just use organic sugar (from cane).

I’d love to hear any reports back on how it goes for you!

By: Lawrence

Lawrence — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 06:44:38 +0000

Hell Yeah! I’d stop!!!

Thanks for this blog!

What are your thoughts on using actual probiotics to seed the ginger ferment starter rather than leaving it up to chance / moldy creatures…?

Also, any sugar crystals? Really? Even Bleached?

I guess Sucanat and such would add too much flavor?

I’m a big fan of Agave or Xylitol to trick out the bad bacteria…

Or just old fashioned dehydrated cane juice…

YUM!

By: Garden Update

Garden Update — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 06:42:46 +0000

[...] chips and caramel. The food and service were amazing, as always. I noticed that she was serving a rhubarb soda. I think she’s been reading my [...]