My Initial Thoughts on Brewing

I suppose that I should first clarify what I am brewing. I just want to brew soda pop. Different kinds, different flavors, but just soda pop. I enjoy going to microbreweries and drinking their own brewed soda. Most of the time it's root beer or cream soda, which is great because I like drinking both of those.

I can't say that I've always wanted to try making my own soda because I haven't. I can't even say that I'm that big of a fan of soda because I'm not. So why do this then? Personally it just seems like something that'll be fun. Trying different recipes, different ingredients, herbs and spices that I'm not familiar with, and just the whole process sounds like it'll be fun.

I want to try and stick to a few "rules" with all of my recipes:

• Ingredients - I want to use all natural products and avoid imitation flavors and colors at all costs. If at all possible, I'd also like to avoid using extracts as well. Using extracts may be necessary as I first try and sample other recipes and begin to develop my own, but should be avoided upon recipe completion. I want to use the actual raw ingredients.
  
• Carbonation - Originally thinking, I wanted to avoid using CO2 to carbonate my sodas. I wanted to only use yeast to create the carbonation as to go with my thoughts on ingredients and trying to use all natural products. However, as I read more and more about recipes and brewing, I may become more open to it. I don't drink alcohol. Using yeast to create the carbonation will create a small amount of alcohol in the fermenting process. Right now I cannot determine if this amount is small enough for me to justify using yeast. As I brew my first few batches, I will know this process better. If I do end up using CO2 later, it will be okay with me since it's just the carbonation and not the actual recipe. Plus, I'm not that big of a fan of carbonation anyway but flat soda will most likely be gross.
• Cost - I'd like to keep the cost down. Why make all this soda if it ends up costing a fortune? There are a few reasons that I can think of but I'd still prefer to not spend too much, especially in the learning stages.
• Bottling - This kind of goes along with the carbonating direction. I would like to use bottles to store my soda. I think that this gives it a more cool factor that the soda is in its own little bottle. However, this may change if I get into using kegging systems or other types of storage or learn more techniques.

This should be a fun hobby to try. I'm excited to get started and create something original.