Ok bit of a weird one, but I wanted to see what would happen if I used the lambic culture Dr Hong Yeast gave me on a bottle of cola. This was an experiment to see if it would ferment, as cola has chemical preservatives on it, and also to see what that would taste like.
My thinking was, if a lambic culture cannot chew through the cola, then you probably shouldn’t be putting it in your body. My second thought was that the malt and hops are secondary to the role the yeast plays in sour beer. Therefore, as long as there is sugar and water, you should be able to make a pretty good drink.
The procedure was pretty simple: get a bottle of cola, a fermenting vessel and your lambic culture. Then its just a case of putting it all together and giving it a shake to mix things up. Leave the lid on loosely so CO2 can escape and let it stand 10 days at room temperature to let the microbes do there thing.
The colour of the cola completely changes, I didnt take a photo, but the cola basically looks like a wheat beer. The microbes just chewed through the nasty caramel e-numbers. In the end, you get a decently sour alcoholic beverage with some spicy notes from the cinnamon and other spices that are added. I might not be complex, but it is a super easy sour to make. And even though its not strictly a beer, I am sure a lot of people would not be able to tell the difference between this and a standard lambic.
I took this to iBrew to get peoples feedback and nobody could guess what it was some people said ice lemon tea. I don’t think I will make it again ever but at least I know Brett and Lacto will eat cola so we can probably say its ok to put in your body.