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Dublin Ginger Ale Syrup
One-half ounce Dublin Ginger Ale Extract, ¼ ounce solution of citric acid, 16 ounces syrup.
A fountain formula rather than a household one: it makes a flavoring syrup to be drawn into a glass and topped with carbonated water, not a finished drink. Everything hinges on knowing what the three ingredients meant behind a 1900s marble counter.
- The ounces are fluid ouncesThe ounces are most likely fluid ounces -- fountain work was generally measured by volume in graduates rather than by weight. Sixteen ounces of syrup is a pint; the half ounce of extract is a tablespoon, and the quarter ounce of acid solution is a half tablespoon.
- "Syrup" means plain simple syrup"Syrup" here most likely means the fountain's plain or "simple" stock syrup, which was heavy -- commonly around 2 parts granulated sugar to 1 part water by weight. Modern 1:1 simple syrup will give a noticeably thinner, less sweet result at the same dose.
- Solution of citric acidA stock solution of citric acid crystals in water. Published strengths vary, so if you mix your own, note the strength on the label, since the whole point of the quarter ounce here is a fixed, repeatable tartness.
- Dublin Ginger Ale ExtractA proprietary compound sold to fountains, probably built on ginger oleoresin with other oils in alcohol and blended to imitate the dark Irish-style ginger ale. No modern product under that name is readily available; a strong ginger extract or a ginger tincture is the nearest thing, and you will need to dose to taste rather than trust the half ounce.
- Extract strength varies enormouslyCommercial fountain extracts were concentrated to a house standard. Start with a fraction of the half ounce, stir, and taste the finished drink before adding more, since ginger oleoresin turns harsh and burning very quickly.
- Drawing the drinkThe usual fountain measure was about 1 to 1½ ounces of syrup in the glass, filled with carbonated water and stirred. The pint this makes is therefore roughly eleven to sixteen glasses.
- Keeping itA heavy sugar syrup with citric acid in it is reasonably stable, but without the preservatives a fountain would have used, refrigerate it and treat it as a few weeks' supply rather than a season's.
Before ginger ale was something you bought in a bottle, it was something a dispenser built in front of you from syrup and charged water, and books like this one existed to standardize those formulas across thousands of drugstore fountains. The "Dublin" in the name points to the older, darker, sharper Irish-style ginger ale — Belfast and Dublin brewers are generally credited with popularizing the ginger-flavored aerated waters that reached America in the nineteenth century — as distinguished from the paler, drier Canadian style that came to dominate the twentieth. Note that the formula names a branded extract rather than ginger itself: by this period the flavor trade supplied fountains with ready-made compounds, and the dispenser's skill lay in proportioning extract, acid and syrup consistently, glass after glass. The citric acid is doing real work here, supplying the bite that keeps a heavy sugar syrup from tasting flat and standing in for the fruit acids of a true brewed ginger ale.