Making homemade root beer

[Bubba Shlub]

I love root beer. It's my favorite soft drink. I haven't had a root beer that I didn't like. But oddly, I don't have a favorite brand. As much as I like all the root beer's that I've had, I haven't had one that stands out above all the others. So I've decided to experiment with making my own and see what I can come up with. Maybe something stronger, spicier, or even mintier.

Where can I get some of the main ingredients, like sassafrass, sasparilla, the right yeast, etc to make root beer? Do I need special equipment? From what I understand, it's just brewing the flavors and adding the sugar and yeast and let it ferment.

Thanks.

[Fincher]

I'm willing to bet you know more than anyone here on the subject of rootbeer. all the answers you'll get will be from a google search.

I could be wrong though. You never know, Bob Ballantyne may be a closet rootbeer freak!

good luck on your quest young man, I wish you godspeed

[mark1]

I thought it would be fun to do it once, but never got around to it. there are kits you can buy and tons of online recs.
Try this google search phrase:
"making root beer"

[mark1]

Here's the google search terms for kits
"root beer kit | kits"

[bbally]

My favorite commercial product is Henry Winehardts root beer.

Your local beer brewing store with have everything you need to make it. Start using extracts and work on the spicing. Then backward integrate that into making your own extract.

I have moved from root beer to birch beer. It is a wonderful soft drink.

[moselle]

Our local brew Pub makes ginger beer and root beer. I like the ginger beer

[Bubba Shlub]

Thanks for the suggestion on the kits Mark. All the kits seem to have already flavored root beer extracts. I want to make my own flavors.

Your local beer brewing store with have everything you need to make it. Start using extracts and work on the spicing. Then backward integrate that into making your own extract.

I have moved from root beer to birch beer. It is a wonderful soft drink.

Bob, why do you suggest starting with extracts first? Why can't I just buy the spices and do it myself?

I've never heard of a "beer brewing store". They really exist?

I think I had birch beer once when I was a kid. I don't remember the taste though. I also tried sasparilla and liked it. I've had Stewart's ginger beer. I don't know if they still make it. It was hard to find where I lived at the time. It was pretty good.

I did a little research and apparently, you can't buy sassafras root in the U.S., which is where root beer originally got its flavor from. It has something called safrole which is a carcinogen. I've seen recipes that call for sassafras root, so I guess you have to be lucky enough to find wild sassafras and pick it yourself. What do the commercial brands use for their flavoring?

I wonder if birch beer would be more convenient to make. Maybe I could try ginger beer or sasparilla, but I really want to make root beer.

[bbally]

This is one of the better ones in the knoxville area. (used to work at ETTP from time to time on long term contracts.)

Allen Biermakens
4111 Martin Mill Pike
Knoxville, TN 37920
(865) 577-2430

You can make the extracts from the start if you want to, I just found it easier to get the carbonation methods down first with the bottling, then once I had that down I started with the mashing and extracting.

This is the other one:

Fermentation's Inc
8807 Kingston Pike
Knoxville, TN 37923
(865) 694-7993

[Bubba Shlub]

Thanks Bob. I appreciate the info.

When were you in the Knoxville area? I live in Maryville. I don't know if you know where that is. I'll try Allen Biermakens first.

When you made root beer were you able to find sassafras root? What did you use for birch beer from scratch?

[bbally]

Birch Cambrium (sp) from the white birch tree. Basic distillation to capture essential oils.

Was out by the ETTP most of the time while I was there.

[SugarBrown]

Wow, Rich, you ARE brave!

My family always made root beer from extract - Hires, to be exact - and we loved it! The neighbor kids from miles around would all of a sudden be great friends with us!

Then, when Hires quit making extract (at least that we could find), we had to start buying Schilling extract, which wasn't toooo bad.

I have to say I admire your fortitude and hope you come up with a wonderful root beer of your own!

[Bubba Shlub]

I went to Allen Biermaken today and got some stuff. 24 bottles, caps, bottle capper, and champagne yeast (he recommended it over the other kinds he had). I also got a bottle of root beer extract. I figured I'll try it and see how it is even though I want to learn to make root beer from scratch.

I also stopped at a health food store and got some things there so I can make root beer from scratch. Cloves, dandelion root, licorice root, juniper berries, cardamom, and peppermint leaves (they didn't have anything in wintergreen). I also found sassafras concentrate instant tea. It was the only sassafras product they had. I opened the bottle when I got home and smelled it. It smelled so good, just like root beer. Then I tasted it. That was disappointing. The taste was so weak compared to the smell. LOL. I wonder how much I'll need to make a batch of root beer. Maybe reducing it to concentrate the flavor more might help.

So now I have to figure out which method I want to try first, using the root beer extract or making it from scratch. I can't wait to see how it turns out either way.

[bbally]

"Come quickly, I am tasting stars!"


You are going to have a lot of fun with this!

[Bubba Shlub]

LOL

You are going to have a lot of fun with this!

I'm having fun just thinking about it. I'm going to start now. I think I'll try the extract first, like you suggested.

One more question. How do you keep the bottles from exploding? Or is that the "fun" you were referring to?

[bbally]

Use good pressure bottles, if you purchased a couple cases at the store you will be fine. Just keep them in the garage or some other place not likely to get above 80 F or so. One will let go from time to time. Not much you can do to stop it. Better to have the cap come off then the bottle explode so use your capper.