The Bar Towel

Anyone here have experience brewing a (non-alcoholic) root beer?

I've come across a few decent resources and recipes, but have never attempted one. Appreciate any links / tips people can share!

El Pinguino wrote:Anyone here have experience brewing a (non-alcoholic) root beer?

I've come across a few decent resources and recipes, but have never attempted one. Appreciate any links / tips people can share!

yes.
they are expensive.
http://www.chow.com/recipes/10681-chow-root-beer

i left out the licorice.

I've tried a couple times, but you need to remove from your mind the taste of A&W or Hires as the epitome of root beer. All recipes I've tried are good, but because they don't use a dark caramel syrup and usually aren't vanilla heavy don't look or taste like commercial root beer, not that this is a bad thing. Also, it can be difficult to get sassafras as it is considered a carcinogen. Don't get the extract "kits", they are terrible.

Thanks guys. Ya, I'm all about different root beers....I've tried more than 200 different ones and prefer the ones with a bit of a different, more complex flavour such as Babbling Brooke from Nickelbrook or Bulldog root beer from California.

I find root beer fascinating as you can get some that are heavy vanilla, sweet bombs even to the extent of having lactose in them. Or some spicy cinnamon, sassafrass, birch root types. Or the big anise/licorice ones. Then you get the big minty wintergreen ones (the flavour that pretty much all Europeans and South Americans hate).

Exploding bottles seems to be a very common issue with root beers....fun!

ferment in an empty 2 litre. nothing will explode.
ferment at 18 C.
do it for 48 hours, then put in the fridge.

my recipe tastes deliciously rooty/herbal but still has that root beer essence to it.
sassafrass is available at all herb stores on the danforth. its carcinogenic properties were exaggerated.

atomeyes wrote:sassafrass is available at all herb stores on the danforth. its carcinogenic properties were exaggerated.

I've always felt that the carcinogenic properties were exaggerated, but as I understand it it is still not permitted in commercial versions of root beer. Could be wrong though.

The stuff available that you have seen, is it the whole root or just the bark?

jcc wrote:

atomeyes wrote:sassafrass is available at all herb stores on the danforth. its carcinogenic properties were exaggerated.

I've always felt that the carcinogenic properties were exaggerated, but as I understand it it is still not permitted in commercial versions of root beer. Could be wrong though.

The stuff available that you have seen, is it the whole root or just the bark?

think it's the bark.
again, you're talking about drinking it a few times a year. think we're safe.

Interestingly, the root beer from Nickelbrook lists sassafras root as one of the ingredients, whereas pretty much any other root beer I've had lists sassafras or sassafras extract (which have had safrole removed from them, so are "safe".)