Warsh Pail Released/New Soda
We did it. We finally bottled the Warsh Pail Ale. I had to filter it in order to bottle it, but it still retained its hoppy goodness. We packaged it on Tuesday, so you should find it out around the state this weekend. We are hoping that it will all be gone by September 15th, because that is when the Oktoberfest is coming out. We don’t like to have two seasonals around at the same time, since the older one tends to linger. Also it is confusing for our retail accounts since we have the same six pack carrier, but with different stickers on it.
We have unanimously agreed that it would be good to stop producing Cream Soda when the packaging runs out at the end of this year. It sells, but it is a slow seller. I made up several “test” batches of new flavors of soda this week. Included in my tests were Lemon Soda, Black Cherry, Ginger Ale, Orange Cream, and Blue Raspberry. I made up six gallons of each in a 15 gallon bung sided keg and carbonated them by putting them under 30PSI for two days. The fun part was the taste testing. Everyone had their favorites. Chris liked the Lemon Soda and the Cherry, but could not stand the Orange Cream. He said it reminded him of baby aspirin! Teresa liked the Orange Cream and Cherry, but didnt’ care for the others. Tom liked the Ginger ale, and three random kids all liked the Black Cherry. Everyone agreed that the Blue Raspberry tasted like an Ice Pop that had melted, and you wished it had not. I like the Black Cherry too, so I think that is the winner, since no one disliked it! Our intensive market research is now over.
I will order a gallon of this flavor and continue working on formulations. Maybe one including cream or vanilla flavors. I am also very interested in toying with some of the new artificial sweetners. I don’t care much for aspartamine (nutrasweet) but some of the others I have had were pretty good, I think one was Sucralose. I have to be choosy, as this stuff is 50 to 100 dollars a POUND! Ofcourse a little goes along way.
Diet pop would really be something new for us, and I don’t want it to taste like diet pop. Our sodas are incredibly sweet, and I think something a little ‘drier’ would be good for a change, since enourmous amounts of sugar tend to coat your tongue. I am intrigued by the ‘big guys’ new mixed sugar/sweetner products, like C2 and Pespi Edge. I may play with that. Soda is easy, I can formulate new one in an afternoon. Beer, on the other hand, takes weeks just to get your first result!