Homemade soda is a delicious and healthy alternative to any store-bought soda. Herbs provide health benefits, and also a refreshing taste to this soda! Learn how to make this fizzy fermented drink recipe with three herbal ingredients.
When it’s hot and we’ve been working in the garden or barn, the most thirst-quenching drink we can imagine is something cold, sweet, and fizzy. A soda.
Occasionally we find organic, all-natural sodas at the Amish bent and dent store and enjoy them as a treat, but in general, we find them to be too sweet.
Recently we’ve gotten into the routine of creating something even better: homemade sodas infused with herbs and flowers. They are among the most delicious fermented drinks I’ve ever tasted, so today I’m going to share how to make your own homemade soda from herbs and edible flowers you might already have in your garden.
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How to Make Homemade Soda
First off: there are naturally fermented sodas that use only the live culture of whey, sauerkraut juice, or a ginger bug to generate a bit of fizz, and there are also recipes for homemade sodas made with packets of yeast. I’ll be sharing both techniques here, so you can take your pick! If you do opt for the naturally fermented ginger bug recipe, be sure to start your ginger bug well in advance using this recipe:
>> How to Make a Ginger Bug for Homemade Soda
Either way, it’s the action of the yeast that carbonates the soda: as they eat a small amount of the sugar, they make carbon dioxide gas, which is trapped in the bottle, builds up pressure, and forms the carbonation.
Making homemade soda is not an exact science. You’ll want to get the proportions and timing pretty close to the recipe below, but don’t worry if you wiggle on quantities and ingredients. The point is to have fun and be creative! We harvested sage, elderflowers, and anise hyssop, from our garden and used these as flavorings for our fermented drink recipes, but you could also use strawberries, calendula, chamomile, rhubarb, lavender, lemon juice, and so on! You might also want to try my Dandelion Soda recipe.
Homemade Soda Ingredients
- A large handful of herbs or edible flowers of choice (We have used anise hyssop, sage, and elderflowers in three different batches, and all three have been delicious!)
- One gallon of water
- 1 1/2 – 2 cups organic sugar (Or honey or another real sweetener.)
- 4 TBSP lemon juice
- 1/2 cup ginger bug starter
- OR 1/4 tsp yeast (you can use champagne or ale yeast, or even bread yeast)
- Glass bottles for brewing
To Make the Soda
1) Place your large handful of herbs in one gallon of water. Bring to a boil, and then allow to cool slightly before adding sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar completely.
2) When the liquid has cooled to room temperature, stir the lemon juice, and either your ginger bug starter or the yeast into the “tea.” Mix well.
3) Using a funnel for spill-proof pouring, and a strainer to catch plant material, pour the soda into bottles. You can use flip-top bottles designed for brewing, like these ones, or you can use food-grade plastic soda bottles.
4) Set the bottles in a room temperature location for around 48 hours (36 in warmer summer weather) to develop carbonation.
IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTE: This is when you need to be most attentive to your soda. If you leave it in a warm environment for too long, the CO2 gas pressure can become so great that the bottles can explode, with potentially injurious results. Even though these glass bottles are designed for brewing, you will want to pay close attention to your ferments.
5) If you want to check for fizz, you can slightly crack open one of the bottles to see how fizzy it is, then recap it quickly. After carbonation, move the bottles to your refrigerator, or another cold location. Although the cold slows the activity of the yeast in a fermented drink, it doesn’t stop it altogether, so plan on drinking it within the week.
6) Open carefully, cracking the seal slowly to monitor how much carbonation has occurred. Sometimes, it may foam out a bit like champagne, so hold the bottle over a bowl to capture any spill. Serve cold, or over ice, and enjoy!
How to Make Homemade Soda :: Three Herbal Recipes
Light, sweet, fizzy, and refreshing, homemade soda is the perfect ending to a hot summer day. This post will teach you how to make homemade soda at home.
Ingredients
- A large handful of herbs or edible flowers of choice (We have used anise hyssop, sage, and elderflowers in three different batches, and all three have been delicious!)
- One gallon of water
- 1 1/2 – 2 cups organic sugar (Or honey or other real sweetener.)
- 4 TBSP lemon juice
- 1/2 cup ginger bug starter
- OR 1/4 tsp yeast (you can use champagne or ale yeast, or even bread yeast)
- Glass bottles for brewing
Instructions
- Place your large handful of herbs in one gallon of water. Bring to a boil, and then allow to cool slightly before adding sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar completely.
- When the liquid has cooled to room temperature, stir the lemon juice, and either your ginger bug starter or the yeast into the “tea.” Mix well.
- Using a funnel for spill-proof pouring, and a strainer to catch plant material, pour the soda into bottles. You can use flip top bottles designed for brewing, like these ones, or you can use food grade plastic soda bottles.
- Set the bottles in a room temperature location for around 48 hours (36 in warmer summer weather) to develop carbonation.(Please read safety note)
- If you want to check for fizz, you can slightly crack open one of the bottles to see how fizzy it is, then recap it quickly. After carbonation, move the bottles to your refrigerator, or another cold location. Although the cold slows the activity of the yeast, it doesn’t stop it altogether, so plan on drinking it within the week.
- Open carefully, cracking the seal slowly to monitor how much carbonation has occurred. Sometimes, it may foam out a bit like champagne, so hold the bottle over a bowl to capture any spill. Serve cold, or over ice, and enjoy
Notes
IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTE: This is when you need to be most attentive to your soda. If you leave it in a warm environment for too long, the CO2 gas pressure can become so great that the bottles can explode, with potentially injurious results. Even though these glass bottles are designed for brewing, you will want to pay close attention to your ferments.
I make natural soda. 1 sterilized gallon jar filled a little more than 1/3 of the way to the top with chopped and cored apples, skin on. 1 cup of brown sugar (not packed.) filtered water to the top, stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Breathable cotton cloth or coffee filter over the mouth (wide mouth) of the jar secured by a rubber band. Let counter ferment at room temp unless you have a really warm house then put it in the refrigerator. No commercial yeast required. The unwashed apple skin has plenty of natural yeast. Taste test every day until it is the flavor you can enjoy. Test with a santitized spoon no double dipping because that will contaminate your brew. Mine is usually just right after 7-8 days. Decant into flip top battles made for carbonated beverages. Bottle condition by adding 1/2-1 tsp of sugar to each bottle and shaking well to dissolve….cap and counter ferment or in very warm climates refrigerate. After three days of counter fermentation refrigerated for a few days…delicious every time and super carbonated. It works every time. You may also quickly burp your bottles daily during the counter ferment to reduce some of the carbonation. This is just a release of the latch of the swing top bottles not opening the top completely.
Sounds delicious! It’s similar to how we make hard apple cider, but “stop” a small amount after a few days so the kids can enjoy it fizzy, but non-alcoholic. Thanks for sharing!
I came up with a little beer bottle cap that indicates bottle pressure for soda making. I was teaching groups in my brew store how to make home made soda and it was difficult to get the correct timing for bottle conditioning for each group. I just wanted to see if I could send you one to try out. You have a great page with lots of great info. It was inspiring so I thought I’d share our little product
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1160450909/
Sounds like a cool product, Tyson. I don’t do product reviews these days. I’d be happy to try something, but I can’t commit to any sort of review or share about it. Sorry, but I just don’t have the time these days.
What’s the alcohol content like on this? Mine tastes pretty alcoholic….I let it go for maybe a day longer than the 48 hours but that couldn’t have done too much, right?
It will become more alcoholic the longer it ferments. But I’m not sure of the exact content. Try a shorter ferment next time and see how you like it!
Thanks for this! (received from your newsletter) I am always looking for new wayy to use fresh items from our gardens, and love the idea of sodas. I will defintely be trying it.
They have been SO enjoyable!
So excited to try this recipe! Thank you for sharing. What champagne yeast do you like to use? I see several brands on Amazon. As a side note, do you have a source for the lovely glass jar you are using to enjoy your soda?
Hi Kari,
Honestly, these batches we used bread yeast for one, and the “sludge” from brewing a batch of beer for the other two!! So I don’t have a particular brand I’m partial to, but I know you can use champagne yeast, and you don’t need to be too picky 🙂
As for the bottles, they are from Grolsch and Fisher (Fischer??) beer. We just bought a bunch of the beer, for the bottles, mostly, and have had them for years. They are precious and wonderful!
I can’t make out the brand on the graceful jar that you are drinking from…I’ve never seen that shape!!
One is Grolsch, one is Fisher (or Fischer?). We found a lot of these at thrift stores, just collecting them over the years!
Do you think water or milk kefir could be used instead of whey or sauerkraut juice?
I bet you could use a little strained water kefir. I don’t think I’d use milk kefir, as it could mix with the lemon and curdle.