Packet-Yeast Mint Lemonade

Supermarket dry yeast is a bread strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It is bred to make CO2 fast in dough.

The lemonade is very acidic: estimated pH 2.6–2.9, not measured. The acid slows the yeast. A small dose keeps the rate slow enough to catch the bottles at the correct pressure.

The dose does not limit how much sugar the yeast can ferment. Time and temperature do. The fridge is the stop.

A large dose, or a long warm time, gives bread and sulfur notes.

Drying damages the cell membranes of the yeast. Warm water lets the membranes recover before the yeast meets acid and cold. The foam also proves that the yeast is alive before it goes into 2 L of lemonade.

The sugar pulls juice and oil from the crushed ginger, the same way it pulls oil from the peel.

Raw ginger gives [6]-gingerol. Gingerol activates TRPV1, the heat receptor, so it reads as warmth. Heat changes gingerol into shogaol, which is sharper. This recipe uses no heat, so the ginger stays warm and round.

The ginger is not fermented. This version does not have the yeasty, lactic ginger note of the bug version. That note is the main difference in taste.

The base starts near 165 g fermentable sugar in 2 L (8.2%). The bug version starts slightly higher because the bug liquid carries some sugar.

About 2.5 volumes of CO2 need about 20 g sugar in 2 L. The base ends near 145 g (7.2%). The ethanol is about 0.5–0.7% ABV.

All of these values are calculated. Nobody measured them yet.