Root Beer

I was all ready to bottle the fresh hops beer I brewed 11 days ago when I saw that it was still bubbling a bit.  I certainly don’t want any exploding bottles.  So what was I going to do with a nice rack of sterilized bottles and a sterilized bottling bucket and tubes?  Make ROOT BEER!  I bought the flavoring a while ago.  I just needed sugar, dry yeast, the flavoring, water, and the equipment.  What I didn’t have was a good way to measure 2 gallons, which is what the recipe called for, so I ended up with somewhat diluted root beer.  I hope that it still gets carbonated.  It tastes great.  The kids were really happy about that since they think beer is yuck.   It was super easy.  Here is the recipe I used:

• 1/8 tsp dry yeast dissolved in 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 TBL root beer flavoring (I purchased it at my local brewing supply store)
• 2 gallons of water (I used 2.25 since I ended up with 24 bottles ((12 oz. x 24)/128 oz. = 2.25)  

Mix well, bottle, wait 4-6 days for carbonation to take place. 

I’ll write about how it turns out. 

Wow – it’s great!  The carbonation level is perfect.  Who knew I could use the yeast I use for waffles to make root beer?  The flavor is a bit diluted due to the extra water but it is very refreshing.  We made ice cream floats with it on Friday.   And the cost per bottle is slight.  I made 30 bottles with about $1.00 of flavoring, $0.50 worth of sugar, $0.20 worth of yeast.  I had to use electricity and natural gas to sterilize the bottles ($1.00?) and I used iodine for the equipment – another $0.50.  And I used tap water which is pretty cheap per gallon.  Say it was a total of $3.00.    So $0.10 per bottle.  That is hard to beat.

Now I want to make vanilla soda and real root beer with natural ingredients.    

Advertisement