Root Beer Recipe

Curtis2010 · 01-24-2012, 11:56 PM

As requested, I am posting this recipe on it's own thread:

Originally Posted by Curtis2010

I just brewed an awesome root beer and thought I would post here for the benefit of those looking for a good recipe. This is for 5 gallons for forced carbonated root beer (you could of course easily adapt this to naturally carbonate).

The end result has a rich creamy head with very long retention, creamy mouth feel, and is not overly sweet as can result if using sugar rather than DME.

Ingredients below:

8oz Cara-Pils
8oz Flaked Oats
1lb Light DME
1 Bottle Root Beer Extract (qty may vary by supplier)
1/2 tsp Vanilla

Brew Steps:

Bring 1 gallon of water to 160 and add grains (I put mine in a grain bag which makes them easy to remove). Steep at 155 for 30 minutes (do not boil). Remove grains.

Add DME and mix well. Bring water back up to 160 and hold for 30 minutes (there is no need to boil this stuff...just need to pasteurize and mix well).

Transfer to keg (our whatever your gear dictates) add extract (again no need to boil an extract you just drive off flavor components). Top up with with cool clean water. Force carbonate at approximately 26PSI at 45F.

Pic attached of the end result -- rich, creamy and yummy!

You could also adapt this to brew a "hard" root beer by upping the gravity with DME. I have a small 1-liter test batch of this approach brewing now. I brought the OG of this test batch up to about 1.060 with DME and pitched a generic dry brewer's yeast by Coopers.

BW210 · 01-27-2012, 02:54 PM

So would you add priming sugar to the root beer and bottle like beer if you don't wish to force carbonate? Thanks in advance.

Curtis2010 · 01-27-2012, 05:49 PM

Yes, you should be able to mix in appropriate amount of priming sugar and yeast to naturally carbonate.

For naturally carbonating root beers I prefer to use large plastic soda bottles so I can bleed off any excess pressure easily.

Also, I added a pic to my original post above (forgot it when I re-posted here). Note there is condensation on the mug so the representation of clarity suffers a bit (clarity is actually better than it looks).

Let me know how it works out.

BW210 · 01-28-2012, 04:21 PM

Cool. The kids have been going to the brew store with me and decided they want to make some root beer. Hoping to do some next weekend. Thanks for the recipe.

Curtis2010 · 01-28-2012, 04:34 PM

Great. Let me know how the recipe works for you.

tulsabrewdaddy · 05-02-2012, 12:46 PM

What is the serving pressure you are using, is it the 26 PSI you do for force carbing? I force carb my beer at serving pressure and just leave for about 10-14 days so I was wondering if this could be the same?

dantose · 05-02-2012, 11:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BW210

So would you add priming sugar to the root beer and bottle like beer if you don't wish to force carbonate? Thanks in advance.

You will need to refrigerate to stop the yeast if you naturally carbonate. Otherwise the pressure will build enough to make a bomb out of it. You will want to use plastic to brew in so you can feel the pressure to gauge when they need to go in the fridge. You want them HARD. Like, seltzer water hard.