I’m looking for an alternative to energy drinks, which seem to me to be overpriced for what are just sugars and salts. Anybody out there have a home-brewed recipe for an energy drink, or a cheap alternative that’s widely available?
Cheers,
Don
Do you mean something like Gatorade? That is cheaper to buy as a powder and mix yourself.
My lane-mate at swim practice makes his own sports drink… he has some wierd combinations but I’ll ask him what he puts in it.
search the forum, there are a ton of recipes for maltodextrin and similar based bulk homemade energy drinks…
I race and train on one part honey, one part water in a hammergel flask. Honey is fructose and glucose (similar to HFCS) plus some other goodies. If it is a hot race, I break open some enduralytes and add them (tastes pretty salty till you get used to it). I figure that one ounce of honey is equal to a Gu, but do not recall the calorie content specifically. Honey stores for a long time, and if it starts to congeal or thicken, just warm it in a pot of boiling water.
There’s a cheap recipe in one of the recent issues of Outside magazine — some maltodextrin, fructose, and salt I think. Sorry, don’t remember what the exact formula is off the top of my head, but I remember they mentioned team Rabobank was has been using it for a while now.
kool-aid and pinch of salt?
You can find 3 options here:
http://www.roadcycler.com/2006/08/screw-gatorade-make-your-own-sports-drink/
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If you’re using it prior to activity coffee has always worked for me. the caffeine helps with glycogen storage, sugar for carbs, and milk or cream has a little protein, and, coffee has water in it for hydration 
That sounds like an expensive recipe at one part honey for one part water. If you make up a water bottle work, at 20 oz, that’s 10 oz. of honey! Even filling up half a flask with honey would get pricey, considering a jar of honey is perhaps two full flasks worth.
cheaper than gatorade? man you are tight.
Find someone with a Costco card and buy a huge tub of powdered gatorade. You really can’t get any cheaper.
You could start your meth lab!
Maybe I should have mentioned - I live in the UK and gatorade powder isn’t widely available here.
Are you looking for a drink to take during exercise or after? Can’t help with during exercise, but I have an energy drink I make myself.
I brew Kombucha Tea. It’s cheap and good. You can google it and get a recipe and a starter kit for about 25 USD. Then all you need is water, sugar and tea to keep it growing/brewing. I drink it post workout. Sometimes I’ll have some before a workout if I need some caffiene (I brew it with regular tea, so there is caffiene in it).
I also have a palm tree in my yard and collect coconuts, drill them and drain the coconut water and drink it post workout for electrolyte replacement. Super good and free.
Edit. Sorry, I just saw that you are from the UK, I imagine it would be pretty costly.
I despise gatorade, since it effectively is Kool Aid with salt. I had to stop using it 10miles into my recent marathon for 5miles, because I had the shakes from a sugar high. I don’t use homemade, I use Cytomax, it’s significantly pricier, but better working, better tasting and easier on the stomach.
I have started making homemade energy bars though, I made a big batch last night, they’re much tastier than the commercial ones, and I have no allergy issues with them.
Maybe I should have mentioned - I live in the UK and gatorade powder isn’t widely available here.
Maybe not - but there are plenty of other powdered energy drinks available. I’ve used either High 5 or Science in Sports products with no problems - both are available online or from your nearest good health shop/bike shop/running shop. I’m sure I could make something cheaper myself but frankly I can’t be bothered - a 2kg tub of powder lasts me a long time as on training sessions up to 1.5 hours I usually only use water or maybe a 50-50 mix of juice and water.
Calculate what you make an hour and add the cost of your time when calculating how much the homemade stuff is actually going to cost you, between getting all the supplies and making it. Then go buy some powdered drink. It is bad enough that I am in one of the most OC sports imaginable, I do not want to make it worse by making my own nutrition.
With the time you save by buying powdered sports drink you can start making your own tubulars! Don’t they seem over priced? After all they are just an inner tube sewn into a rubber strip.
“Calculate what you make an hour…”
This is part of the problem. I’m a medical student, so I currently make £0.00/hr.
I looked into this and the major base ingredients are VERY cheap, especially if you buy in bulk. I found a place that sells 50lb bags of malto for about the same price as one tub of gatoraide powder. Adding appropriate electrolytes to personal need is also very cheap.
The catch is the flavoring. Never found a place that sold basic flavoring.
BTW I never actually bought any of the stuff as 50lbs of malto would probably last me 5 lifetimes, but it’s an option.
~Matt