Re:Were Early Modern People Perpetually Drunk? (2016)
by WorldMaker on Wednesday February 01, 2017 @11:02AM
(#13541713)
The ability to carbonate water (for soda) without yeast/alcohol is very much a relatively modern industrial invention.
Root beer and Ginger ale are named as such for the obvious reason.
My small disappointment in the current fad of "hard" sodas is that they are often malt beverages/"distilled" beer at ~5% alcohol rather than, say, traditional recipes in the ~2-3% range.
The ancester of carbonated soda, called «limonade» in France and given to kids cannot be naturally obtained without alchohol.
As an experience I did make some (water, citrus, a little exposition to air (thus yeast)) and anaeroby fermentation will give you the expected result: - an acid, sugarish refreshing drink - with bubbles, - and ~2-3% alcohol
My experiments confirm what is said on a chemistry forum. http://forums.futura-sciences.com/chimie/410527-limonade-art...
Kids, were given alcohol in the old days, no wonder why they were calmer, lol.
My look at older german polish recipies makes me suspicious that a common drink of the old ages their the «brotbier» (you put old bread in a jar of water and let it ferment in anaerobic conditions) should also have been alcoholized.
And yes without Chaptal (17g/l of sugar = 1% alcohol, how to dope your alcohol fast) (not Gay Lussac) obtaning strong alcohol is tough.