Hop Soda?!
We love beer over here at brooklyn soda works, especially good, crisp, hoppy american IPAs. Today we decided to try out a bitter soda made from hops. The idea was to combine the pine/grapefruit aroma and bitterness of fresh cascade hops with the fruity/herbal spice of pink peppercorn and some orange zest to round it out.
First try was just way too bitter- we used about 20 fresh Cascade hop flowers and boiled for about 30 min. Most of the great aroma of the hops was lost in the boil and a we got a whole lot of bitterness that overwhelmed the more delicate peppercorn and orange zest flavors.
Second try was much better- 2 tablespoons of pink peppercorns boiled in 1L of water for about 15 min, then the hot water was poured over 7 hop flowers and the zest of 1 orange. Let it sit until it cooled and then sweetened lightly with about 1/4 cup of sugar.
Yummmmm, tastes nothing like beer but should appeal to beer fans or anyone who likes hops or other bitter and floral tastes.
you should check out papaya seeds. You can make a pepper out of them after drying and grinding. They have this papaya flavor with a mustard tint. Very cool and it would make an awesome soda! (saw you on kickstarter by the way.
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