Fermented honey lemon soda
- 1 cup raw honey
- 1 cup lemon juice
- 6 cups purified water (filtered, then boiled for 30 minutes, and cooled)
Enough to fill two 750ml pop-top bottles with room to spare for the carbon dioxide.
Mix it all up, then bottle, and let sit in dark place for 5-10 days. Bubbles should appear after a few days.
If you're not starting with raw honey, you can kickstart the fermentation with a spoonful of whey or 막걸리.
History
September 2019
Started around noon on August 31, 2019. Same proportions as before, except used raw honey and fermented in my 항아리.
After about five days, tasted it. It was solid — carbonated and fermented, but still sweet.
Drank it continuously over several days. On September 13 (two weeks), finished it. It had lost a lot of its sweetness and started to smooth over. Would have been interesting to let it ferment for a month.
August 2019
Started in the evening, August 14, 2019.
- 1 cup honey
- 1 cup lemon juice (from Eun-Joung's garden!)
- 6 cups water
Enough to fill two 750ml pop-top bottles with room to spare (hopefully) for the carbon dioxide.
Inspired by this recipe, which calls for raw honey. Sadly, I didn't have raw honey, so I used pure (which is pasteurized), unfiltered. Hoping there's enough yeast in the air to ferment.
I used filtered water, which I also boiled for 30 minutes, then let cool to room temperature.
Placed it in a sealed brown bag (to protect from sun and also if it blows up), and keeping it in the kitchen, where it will hopefully stay warm. Should take 5-7 days. Gonna check every day for bubbles and possibly pop the lid to release the gas.
August 16, 2019 — I've been checking on it twice a day, swirling it around. Nothing's happening so far — no bubbles, nothing. This might take a while. Perhaps I should do it in the open air so it can get some yeast in the air?
August 18, 2019 — Nothing's happening. Added two spoonfuls of 막걸리 to one of the bottles to see if I can kickstart the fermentation.
August 21, 2019 — Evening. The bottle with the 막걸리 is bubbling away like crazy! The other bottle still isn’t doing anything.
August 22, 2019 — Morning. Added one spoonful of 막걸리 to the other bottle, and gave it a stir. If I consider the addition of the 막걸리 the first real day of fermentation, then the first bottle has been going now for five days tonight. Maybe move it to the refrigerator tonight. Check the other bottle on August 28, 2019.
August 23, 2019 — Morning. Put first bottle into refrigerator (9 days total, 5 days with two spoonfuls of 막걸리, half a day in the fridge). Tasted it in the evening. It was delicious! Mead-like, a little sweet (but not too much), and a little bubbly.
August 27, 2019 — Noticed that my refrigerated bottle had continued to ferment and carbonate quite a lot. Was nervous about my bottle still fermenting, so I popped the seal to relieve the pressure. A ton had built up! Glad I popped it.
August 28, 2019 — Evening, the fermenting bottle exploded. Was super fortunate that it was in a brown bag and that no one was in the living room when it happened. The brown bag contained most of the glass (and surprisingly the liquid), but some glass got blown into the living room. Learned my lesson — plastic bottles from now on.
