3tbsp juniper berries
1 cinnamon stick
juice and rind of 1 lemon
2 cloves
2 cardamom pods
1 bay leaf
200g sugar
boiling water to 1 gallon
Crushed all ingredients - added to a bucket and left overnight to infuse. In the morning, add yeast (I'd do individual bottles next time as fermentation was inconsistent bottle to bottle) and funnel into PET bottles. Check bottles every 12 hours putting the hard ones into the fridge (this stops the fermentation, it will start again if you leave them out of the fridge.) Chill down and drink, pour over ice, add whisky or whatever.
Id needs a little more bitterness and acidity next time so that's a route I'll explore. It's lightly flavoured but enjoyable and you don't want to guzzle it which is good and the sort of thing I'm after.
The bottles took about 2-3 days to harden up and I put them in the fridge as they did (squeeze checked every 12 hours.) This stops the fermentation so the soda remains sweet but fizzy with no pasteurizing required. Carbonation was inconsistent bottle to bottle, I guess because I added the yeast to the batch, stirred well and then funneled into bottles one at a time through muslin to catch all the crap. Interestingly they're well carbonated after 12 hours in the fridge, unlike beer which takes a while to convert co2 into fizz in my experience. I'll add a few grams of yeast to each bottle next time.
It's only sort of medium in terms of sweetness, certainly miles away from coca cola and fanta! This is a nice amount of sugar in a gallon for something you'd want to drink with a dinner or to chill out with. Maybe for something fruity you'd want more, but I guess there are sodas which will benefit from less too.
There's an obvious sediment in each bottle and it may even clear given time (which it won't get, tee hee.)
I'll brew something else next time. Really enjoyed this and I'll be doing many more in future!