My second attempt at making soda pop was much more successful.

I made ginger ale. Now this isn't like Canada Dry; it's more like Reed's Extra Ginger Brew. There's not 25 grams of ginger per bottle. That would choke you if you made it fresh, but I did use about 55 grams of fresh ginger in a gallon. That's pretty strong for home-brewed ginger ale.

The taste was very good, and the carbonation was fine (not too much or too little). The sweetness was right too. The only negative was a sort of slight soapy acrid smell. I think that was due to the yucca root. Next time I'll leave it out. The ginger isn't aromatic enough to hide it. Too bad, because yucca has a lot of good tonic properties:
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Here's the recipe I used for ginger ale #1:

Ginger root (fresh) - about 2 oz (55 grams)
Yucca root - 1 oz (28 grams)
The juice from half a small lemon (1 U.S. tablespoon, 15 mL)
plus pieces of the other half.
1 cup white sugar (237 mL)
1 cup dark brown sugar (237 mL)
1 teaspoon vanilla (in glycerin not alcohol) (5 mL)
1 gallon water (3.8 L)
a heaping 1/4 teaspoon "liquid" English Ale yeast (1.3 mL)


Heat 2 quarts of the water. You do not need to boil it. Put in the roots, then the lemon, and finally the sugar. Turn the burner on low and simmer for 25-30 minutes. Then turn off the heat.
Add the vanilla to the wort in the pot. Stir.
Take 2 tablespoons (30 mL) of the wort and mix it with 2 tablespoons of cool water, and taste it. Adjust for the amount of sugar and water as desired. I took the lemon pieces out at this time because it was a bit too lemony.
Place the pot in cool water (I used the sink). You can change the water or add ice as needed. Try to get the water fairly close to luke warm in 30 minutes.
Add 1 quart of cold water to a gallon jug. (I refrigerated a half gallon in a very clean glass carafe prior to this.)
Pour the wort carefully into the jug by means of a filtering funnel.
Shake the brew thoroughly with a cap on the jug.
Add the yeast and shake a lot.
I then measured the temperature and it was about luke warm so I used luke warm water from the tap to fill the jug. You can wait till after the brew has sat for 15-30 minutes before adding this water if you want.
Allow to sit for up to 30 minutes. I shook the brew occasionally while it sat.
Pour into sterile bottles and cap.
Place the bottles on their side at room temperature (19-25 C) for 3-4 days. After 3 days I took one bottle and chilled it for a day. I then opened it to check it for taste and carbonation. It was fine. I then chilled the rest in the refrigerator on the fourth day.

It was pretty good, but as I said, next time I'll leave out the yucca.

Parsa