Forager’s Spruce tip soda

Continuing my spruce tip extravaganza weekend that included this lovely spruce tip hydromel, I decided to delve once again in the world of home made sodas.

For those of you who have not explored this yet, homemade sodas are a fantastic way to create your own tastes and aromas in the beautiful bubbliness offered by the champagne yeast that is used.

They don’t require any sterilising of equipment and the possibilities are endless as you only need juice, sugar and yeast. So far I have done grape (fantastic), mixed berries (a tad bit underwhelming) and apple (a bit strange) but I loved the process.

This time, with an abundance of spruce needles, I decided to make a forager’s soda made out of spruce. Imagine a taste of an ice cold, bubbly forestry refreshment- a treat on all the senses!

So for the forager’s soda you will need:

• A 1 litre soda bottle- I chose a glass clip-top one but you can use any commercial plastic soda bottle. It is important it is a soda bottle as it will need to withstand tehe pressure building up inside.
• 2 handfulls of spruce needles
• Sugar
• Lemon zest and lemon juice (optional)
• Water
• Champagne yeast (1/8th of a teaspoon per bottle)- you can find this online or in brewer’s shops.

Method:

Place needles in a pot, cover with water and add enough sugar so that the end result is just a bit too sweet for your taste. This is done because the yeast will consume some of the sugar while fermenting, resulting in a drink that is just right for your taste.

Boil the needles on medium heat for around 20-25 minutes. It requires a long boiling time because of the woodiness of the needles- they need a bit of extra help to release their natural oils and flavours.

After you remove the needles from the heat, add the lemon zest and lemon juice if using any. Leave to cool to room temperature and then pass through a sieve and funnel into your bottle.

Add 1/8th of a teaspoon of the champagne yeast, close the bottle and mix vigorously to dissolve the yeast.

Leave in a relatively warm room for a couple of days, NOT FORGETTING TO “BURP” THE BOTTLE EVERY 4 HOURS OR SO. This will prevent your bottle from exploding and you having to spend 3 hours cleaning sticky soda juice from your kitchen tiles (been there, done that).

Once the desired bubbliness/sweetness is achieved move the bottle in the fridge as that will keep the fermentation in check. Enjoy as a mixer with other drinks or simply on its own <3