Homemade Root Beer

I'm personally too lazy to make homemade root beer, although I did use store-bought concentrate in a pathetic attempt to make a batch once. I offer this section, however, to those that are curious.

I've seen a few good documents about homemade root beer. One of the best comes from Steve Mercer, and can be found here. Basically you need to consider flavoring, sweetening, and bottling & carbonating when you make your own root beer, and this document covers it all in great detail. Another great document comes from David Fankhauser, PhD, and can be found here.

For those that like things simple, most grocery stores sell "root beer concentrate." You should be able to find it near the spices. If you can find the vanilla extract, the root beer concentrate is probably not far away. Just mix 5 gallons of water, 5 lbs of sugar, and 5 lbs of dry ice with the extract and you are good to go! I've also found that you can order root beer extract from Cane and Reed. I've never tried this though.

For those that are slightly more daring, here is a recipe for making root beer from scratch. Keep in mind that this recipe calls for sassafras root, which contains safrole. Safrole is a carcinogenic and has been banned by the Food & Drug Administration in the US. Synthetic alternatives are available however. Thanks to Chris Thompson for this bit of information.





Source: "The Herb Companion", Aug/Sept 1990

REAL Root Beer
5 quarts water
1/4 ounce hops
1/2 ounce dried burdock root
1/2 ounce dried yellow dock root
1/2 ounce dried sarsaparilla root
1/2 ounce dried sassafras root
1/2 ounce dried spikenard root
1 1 /2 cups sugar
1/8 tsp granulated yeast


Simmer herbs for 30 minutes. Add sugar, stir to dissolve. Cool to lukewarm, add yeast and stir well. Cover and let sit for 1 hour. Bottle as above.





Note: I've never made this recipe. If someone decides to make it, let me know if it turns out good! Some ingredients are available online at Leener's. Please let me know if you know of any other place on the net that sells these ingredients.

Here's a tip submitted by Jonny Anu: "I've noticed that quite a few people have trouble with over carbonating from what I've come across on the web. An old trick used here in Finland, and through out Scandinavia is putting a few raisins in one of the bottles. When the raisins float to the top, it's time to stck the bottles in the cold. And, of course, don't use too much yeast!" Also, remember that raisins will affect the taste of the root beer.

Here's another tip submitted by Duane Moore: "We've made 3 batches of homemade rootbeer - just follow the directions on the McCormick root beer concentrate bottle. My dad gave me a 5 gallon wine-making jug, but it was easier in a slightly larger canning pot. We found about 12 dozen old IBC root beer bottles, and my mother had my dad's old bottle-capper & some caps - 40-year old cork lined, but they still worked! Ok, I saved a few back & now I use the plastic-lined ones! Beware overfilling the bottles! The best idea someone gave me was to be sure to put the freshly capped bottles in a large Rubbermaid tub - with the lid on!!! I overfilled the last batch, and they started to explode about a week later. Luckily the lid was on tight! We only lost about 6 bottles, but each bottle was an adventure to open! If you didn't take it slowly, it erupted like champagne! I'll be more careful next time!"

I've also been told that Root Beer Brewing Kits can be purchased from Grant Street Root Beer. The kits sold there contain ingredients, bottles, and instructions for making 16 quarts of root beer at a time.