SC - Making Soda

[Charles McCathieNevile]

Puck explained a method, which involved 10 cups of Sugar (but not Louise, 
aunless she wanted to) nd champagne yeast, which was said to produce a 
non-alcoholic drink.

Good Puck, what I recall of chemistry and biology is that one way to make 
carbon dioxide, which is often used to put bubbles in drinks, is to use 
yeast and sugar (and ideally a little acid, for the comfort of the beasties)

What happens is the beasties convert the sugar into several things - One 
part sugar (C6 H12 O6 for the chemists) (->)becomes two parts alcohol (2 
CH3 CH2OH) and two parts bubbles (2 CO2) when metabolised by Yeast.

>From the sounds of your recipe, perhaps not all the sugaar is converted 
when it is bottled. Given the required time, most of it has converted, 
and some is left to provide sweetness. If too long is spent, there is a 
risk of there being not enough sweetess about, and perhaps also some dead 
yeasties. In many things this will not improve the flavour, although I 
think it complements ginger beer marvellously.

So I suspect you are producing drinks about as alcoholic as light beer. 
You could ask a policeman to let you do a breath test after drinking one, 
or you could measure the specific gravity (density) of the water when 
first you cast the yeast and when the drink is drunk. If there is a 
decrease, it suggests that the sugar has chaged to something else. If 
there is yeast and bubbbles involved, then there are very few possible 
alternatives, and most of them are petrochemicals of the sort that are 
useful as fossil fuels.

At least that's the way I see it. I hope I haven't spoiled the party.

On the other hand, if you were to use a yeast starter, in liberal 
quantity (Bear or sTyrca or somebody could tell you more about this than 
I) and mix your water, flavours, and bottle them with but a teaspoon of 
sugar in each quart bottle, they would hve a very low alcohol content 
indeed. (Of the order of 1% or less. Meaning that it would take most 
small people about a gallon to notice the effect at all, by which time the 
narcotic properties of excessive water consumption would also play a part)

Cheers

Charles Ragnar
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