We appreciate a good micro brew root beer around here. Sometimes it’s nice to be able to say, “I brewed that myself.” So we do. The following recipe is one that I’ve played around with a bit. But the ingredients are really flexible. It’s your brew – make it according to your taste 🙂

 

Step one is to wash your bottles thoroughly. I usually do a soapy wash, bleach soak, soapy wash, rinse in the sink and then rinse with this little gem that attaches to your kitchen faucet. It allows you to get a high pressure squirt up into the bottle.

You can use an extract if you like. It is easier and you get more consistent results. We found the flavor to be rather one-dimensional, though.

In order to make your own extract, you brew up a strong tea of sorts.

I like to start with 1 cup dried currants in 2 quarts of water. You can use raisins, too. But the currants impart a different flavor. Or you can skip them altogether – it’s your root beer 🙂

 

Then I add in 1/2 cup sassafras root. You can add less or more, though. It just depends on how strong you want the sassafras flavor to be.

Then I add in 2 Tbsp sarsaparilla root and 2 Tbsp-1/4 cup licorice root.

Once we tried to make a batch out of plain sarsaparilla root. I thought it was disgusting. Andy said it reminded him of the non-alcoholic beer that you buy at the store. So if you like non-alcoholic beer, try brewing one with just plain sarsaparilla root 🙂

I like to add in 1 Tbsp cacao nibs, a dash of anise, a sprig of chocolate mint (plain mint will work,too), a cinnamon stick and a split vanilla bean.

We also like 1-2 Tbsp of crystallized ginger.

Some other herbs: 1 – 2 Tbsp juniper berries and a pinch of cream of tartar.

At one point, I tried burdock root, but didn’t care for that quite so much. But other people do like it.

Simmer your concoction over med-low heat for 25 minutes or so.

Towards the end, add in 3 c. sugar. I used 2 c. sucanat and 1 cup evap. cane juice crystals. I tried using Rapidura a couple of times, but it actually enhances the yeast action too much. Translation: exploding bottles.

Remove from heat, cover, and let cool for 30 minutes or so.

I like to add in 1-2 Tbsp caramel syrup.

In a small bowl or cup, put 1/4 c. warm water, 1 Tbsp sugar and 1/8 tsp wine yeast. You can use regular baking yeast, but it’s not quite the same as ale yeast.

Allow to set for 5 minutes or so.

 

Strain herbs from your ‘tea’.

I usually just use a double layer of cheesecloth – real cheesecloth, like butter muslin. Don’t bother with the cheesecloth you buy at the grocery store. The holes are too porous.

You can re-use thee herbs, but it doesn’t yield as good of results. It tends to be quite a bit weaker and a tad bit of bitterness.

I usually dig out the cinnamon stick for craft projects (rinse off and air dry) and feed the rest to the chickens.

Pour the ‘tea’ into a bowl or pitcher, add 1 quart cool water and the yeast. Stir well to allow the yeast to distribute evenly.

We found that we like a crock with a spigot on it. It makes it pretty easy to fill the bottles this way. Otherwise you have to fiddle with a funnel trying to fill the bottles.

We have found that we prefer pop bottles over beer bottles as they tend to hold up better.

Have had to clean up after several exploding beer bottles, but no pop bottles (yet!).

The bottles have to have a regular, old-fashioned lip on them. They can’t have the twist-off type lid or they don’t seem to seal correctly.

 

Andy found the best place to get these type of bottles is at a Latin-American type grocery store. They tend to carry the old-fashioned Coca-Cola made with sugar, rather than corn syrup.

 

The capper on the right is one we found at a second hand store and works well for the shorter bottles. It adjusts quite easily for different bottle heights.

The capper on the left is one I purchased from Lehman’s.

It’s a Ferrari. No kidding. And it’s red.

 

Can you see the Made in Italy stamped on it?

So now Andy can’t say that I never got him a red Ferrari 🙂

But it is difficult to adjust the height to accommodate different bottle heights. Once you get it into one place, you want to leave it there. So we use it for the taller bottles.

 

The underside of the capper bells contain magnets to hold the bottle caps in place while you position the bottle underneath it.

Then you press down on the handle.

Sometimes the little magnet will pop out of it’s hole, but it’s easily re-positioned.

You can feel the capper kind of suck down onto the cap while it’s sealing it.

You can pick up new bottle caps at home brew stores or Lehman’s catalog.

After the bottles are capped, you can lay them on their side to make sure the caps aren’t leaking.

Then you let the bottles set upright in a warm place for a day or two to allow the yeast to ferment and carbonate. We have found that during the summer, it doesn’t even take 24 hours before you have to get the root beer in the fridge.

 

During the winter, it can take a couple of days for the carbonation to develop, depending on how warm/cool your house is. Holding a bottle in your hand,  tilt upside down and then bring it back to upright position. When the carbonation is close to being done, you will notice little fizzies rising to the top. Don’t shake it 🙂 You can pop off a cap to double check the carbonation. If the root beer is still flat, with no carbonation, you can re-cap the root beer and check it again in 12-24 hours. But if the carbonation is sufficient, move the bottles to a fridge. We have found that it’s almost better to move the bottles into a fridge before the carbonation is quite to where you want it. Carbonation does continue in the fridge, just at a slower rate. Once we tried just putting the bottles into the fridge without letting them set out for a day or so. That was too cold for the yeast to even begin it’s carbonating process, though.

 

We checked the bottles after 24 hours, and they were still pretty flat.

So we checked them at 36 hours. This was the head that formed when Andy went to pop the top.

So he made a run for the sink and gradually opened it.

You can see the fizzies rising to the top.

The head on the root beer even after taking time, sweet time, to open it.

So the rest of the bottles went in the fridge promptly.

The little black flecks are from the vanilla bean. They were small enough to filter through the cheesecloth. But it’s okay – it is awesome root beer with a nice licorice/vanilla edge.

 

Happy Brewing!