What is Elixir Forge?
A tool for designing and analyzing drink recipes — sodas, cocktails, liqueurs, and fermented drinks. You build a recipe from real ingredients and it computes the chemistry: solubility, GRAS safety limits, pH, °Brix, total acids, carbonation, ABV, calories, cost, color, and allergens.
Is the ingredient data safe to use for commercial production?
No — treat everything here as illustrative, for design and exploration. Physical and regulatory values are estimates or class-based defaults. Always verify GRAS/usage limits and your supplier's specifications before producing anything for sale or consumption.
Will my recipes be saved permanently?
Not yet — the site is in active development (see the banner at the top), and stored data may be reset as the schema evolves. Sign in to own and edit your own recipes; you can also export a recipe to a JSON file as a durable backup.
How do I create a recipe?
Click "+ New Recipe" on the home page, choose a template (soda, cocktail, liqueur, or brewing), then add materials and adjust the stage ratios. The properties panel on the right shows the full analysis as you go.
What does an “out of solution” warning mean, and how do I fix it?
It means an ingredient's amount exceeds what the solvents (and any emulsifiers) present can hold, so it won't fully dissolve. Click the status to open a helper that lists the solvents/emulsifiers that would carry it — least amount needed first — and adds the one you pick in the exact amount required.
What's the difference between a material and a composite?
A material is a single raw ingredient (e.g. citric acid). A composite is a fixed-ratio premix (e.g. a 1:1 simple syrup, or a spirit) that you add as one line; the engine expands it into its constituents for all the chemistry.
Can I add an ingredient that isn't in the library?
Yes. Open the material library (the "Materials" button in the builder) and use "+ New material" or "+ New composite". Click any material name to open its full detail card.
Can I share a recipe?
Yes. Set a recipe's visibility to Unlisted (anyone with the link) or Public (discoverable), then use the Share button to copy its link or post it to social media.
Do amounts use mass or volume? What about alcohol?
You can enter and view amounts in grams or milliliters (toggle in Preferences); the internal basis is always mass. Alcoholic templates report ABV, proof, standard drinks, and alcohol calories automatically when ethanol is present.
What do “Alcohol Free”, “Non-Alcoholic”, and “Alcoholic” mean?
The home library files each recipe into one of three bands by the finished drink's computed alcohol by volume (ABV): Alcohol Free means 0% ABV — no alcohol at all; Non-Alcoholic means a trace above 0% but below 0.5% ABV (for example from a few drops of an alcohol-based flavor extract or very light fermentation), which is below the legal threshold for an alcoholic beverage; and Alcoholic means 0.5% ABV or higher. That 0.5% cutoff is the standard legal line the app uses to sort your recipes.