Root beer question. :)

I want to try to bottle 4 gallons of diet rootbeer using baking splenda as sweetener. At this poing my plan is to just put 4 gallons of water in the bottling bucket and add rootbeer extract and splenda to taste, then add priming sugar to the bucket, mix in well, add yeast and bottle.

Since I can't keg I have to bottle, but will 1 15g packet of coopers ale yeast be enough yeast to carb the root beer?

Is there another way I should to about adding the little beasts to the bucket to get carbing?

I just made 750mL of syrup and stuck it in the fridge. I can add seltzer to a glass whenever I want.

I used an extract to make it and it could be better.... I will try a different brand next time. I just used something I bought at a regular store. Durkee, I think it was.. Meh.. it's ok, but has a weird aftertaste...

Weird, I was just talking to my girl about this very thing this weekend, I'd love to do my own root beer, I love that stuff

i've been meaning to try some root beer, too. think i'm gonna pick up some extract next week.

I'm going to be lazy for a sec, is there a recipe or way to make this at home?

any one have a recipe for birch beer or saspirilla? sorry for the thread jack, maybe I'll start a new one...

but really, got a recipe?

Well, I don't have a recipe.. My plan is simple.

Put 4 gallons of water in my bottling bucket. Add root beer extract, Splenda and, Lactose (for body and creaminess) to taste.

Prime with 3oz of corn sugar, pitch 15g of dry coopers ale yeast and mix good. Then bottle and wait to see what happens.

If you use Splenda check the ingredients and make sure it contains ONLY sucralose and Maltodextrin if you try this.

There are some forms of Splenda that contain dextrose and sucrose (which are also fermentable and can result in bottle bombs.

I won't make sugared rootbeer just because of how dangerous it is.

Szerek said:

Well, I don't have a recipe.. My plan is simple.

Put 4 gallons of water in my bottling bucket. Add root beer extract, Splenda and, Lactose (for body and creaminess) to taste.

Prime with 3oz of corn sugar, pitch 15g of dry coopers ale yeast and mix good. Then bottle and wait to see what happens.

If you use Splenda check the ingredients and make sure it contains ONLY sucralose and Maltodextrin if you try this.

There are some forms of Splenda that contain dextrose and sucrose (which are also fermentable and can result in bottle bombs.

I won't make sugared rootbeer just because of how dangerous it is.

Click to expand...

How is it dangerous?

In order for it to be sweet there has to be large quantities of unfermented sugar in the root beer. Yeast + large quantities of unfermented sugar = exploding bottles.

It's fine if you keg, but I don't.

In talking to my dad, in the old days my grandparents used to make rootbeer and put them outside to ferment with corks in the bottles. When the tops started blowing off they are ready to drink. That's not really an option for me either.

Others refrigerate the root beer after it carbs and that puts the yeasties to sleep. I don't have the room for 2 cases of root beer in the fridge.

Soooo, I'm left with diet root beer, which for me is no prob, that's what I drink anyway.

oh! lol, as in "explody" dangerous, i thought it would turn my blood into acid or something

Szerek said:

Others refrigerate the root beer after it carbs and that puts the yeasties to sleep. I don't have the room for 2 cases of root beer in the fridge.

Soooo, I'm left with diet root beer, which for me is no prob, that's what I drink anyway.

Click to expand...

Think smaller for a second. Why do you have to use your brew equipment? I'd boil it all in a one gallon pot on the stove, dump it in the bottling bucket with some water, and bottle it. It's not like you dedicate 6 hours to a brew session with rootbeer. The process is simple enough, I wouldn't hesitate to make just 6 or 12 bottles at a time...


Anyway, SWMBO picked me up a pound of ginger root and asked, "Will this be enough?" I'm gonna slice it, boil it, add some sugar and lemon, and stick it in a wine bottle and put it in the fridge. Again, just add seltzer to taste...