question about my root beer extract and what to add

Hi I am going to make my first batch of rootbeer and I have the Zatarain's root beer extract and I heard it has a very strong black licorice flavor and I saw someone said that they used vanilla flavoring and brown sugar to knock out the strong black licorice flavor. I was just curious how much brown sugar and vanilla flavoring that I should use in a 5 gallon batch. Please let me know. Thank you

I like their flavour. You can try to make a full 5 gallon batch and pull off a cup at a time and add flavours until you get what you like. Then just math it out for the 5 gallons. Add it back in.

Tried and true extract root beer recipe: 2-4oz extract (I prefer 1 x 4oz bag of Gnome), 7 cups of white cane sugar, 3 cups of brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon pure bourbon vanilla, 4oz maltodextrin. Heat 1 gallon of water to 130-140 degrees, remove from heat, add sugar & maltodextrin, and stir to dissolve. Once dissolved, add extract and vanilla. Fill 4 gallons of cold water to sanitized keg. Add the 1 gallon mixture. Seal and carb at 35 psi for 3-4 days, 38-40 degrees. I have 4 epoxy rods in the dip tube, use 20 ft of 3/16 beer line---perfect flow. This is a household favorite.

Burkhardt said:

Tried and true extract root beer recipe: 2-4oz extract (I prefer 1 x 4oz bag of Gnome), 7 cups of white cane sugar, 3 cups of brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon pure bourbon vanilla, 4oz maltodextrin. Heat 1 gallon of water to 130-140 degrees, remove from heat, add sugar & maltodextrin, and stir to dissolve. Once dissolved, add extract and vanilla. Fill 4 gallons of cold water to sanitized keg. Add the 1 gallon mixture. Seal and carb at 35 psi for 3-4 days, 38-40 degrees. I have 4 epoxy rods in the dip tube, use 20 ft of 3/16 beer line---perfect flow. This is a household favorite.

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What are these epoxy rods in you dip tube?

Bayonet Mixer Nozzle, 5.3", 1/4" blunt tip, McMaster-Carr #74695A58. I use four of these, but would likely get the same results using just two. When you purchase the nozzle, pop out the little swirly stick, sanitize, and insert into the keg's dip tube.

That is cool. You learn something every day!

Burkhardt said:

Tried and true extract root beer recipe: 2-4oz extract (I prefer 1 x 4oz bag of Gnome), 7 cups of white cane sugar, 3 cups of brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon pure bourbon vanilla, 4oz maltodextrin. Heat 1 gallon of water to 130-140 degrees, remove from heat, add sugar & maltodextrin, and stir to dissolve. Once dissolved, add extract and vanilla. Fill 4 gallons of cold water to sanitized keg. Add the 1 gallon mixture. Seal and carb at 35 psi for 3-4 days, 38-40 degrees. I have 4 epoxy rods in the dip tube, use 20 ft of 3/16 beer line---perfect flow. This is a household favorite.

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Looks good, was just on here looking for a recipe for the 4oz Zatarain's I have.

For bottle carb, do I simply add a pack of champagne yeast?

I made a lime soda before from extract, 'Rainbow Flavors' I believe it was... carbonated great, but tasted like lemon dish soap... hoping it was because either the yeast/extract was old. That being said, using the directions on the box, extract, water, sugar and yeast... the carbonation came out perfect.

THRobinson said:

Looks good, was just on here looking for a recipe for the 4oz Zatarain's I have.

For bottle carb, do I simply add a pack of champagne yeast?

I made a lime soda before from extract, 'Rainbow Flavors' I believe it was... carbonated great, but tasted like lemon dish soap... hoping it was because either the yeast/extract was old. That being said, using the directions on the box, extract, water, sugar and yeast... the carbonation came out perfect.

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soapy flavours can be the result of a number of things.

from john palmer:

Soapy flavors can caused by not washing your glass very well, but they can also be produced by the fermentation conditions. If you leave the beer in the primary fermentor for a relatively long period of time after primary fermentation is over ("long" depends on the style and other fermentation factors), soapy flavors can result from the breakdown of fatty acids in the trub. Soap is, by definition, the salt of a fatty acid; so you are literally tasting soap.

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In terms of naturally carbonated soda it could have been you over carbonated. This can cause an a number of off flavours, you should check the bottles every 12 hours and refrigerated as soon as they are hard. Only use plastic for soda, and you will need dedicated root beer equipment, and bottles (or o-rings and beerline and taps if you ever keg it). That smell/taste is never coming out!

What did you clean/sanitize your equipment with? scented bleach scents will stay in most things it comes in contact with and impart those flavours in you beer or soda. also scented dish soap could do the same to a lesser extent. you should only be using proper brewing cleansers. I use unscented oxy clean, or the pink stuff (Diversol) to clean. They are clean in place which means they do the scrubbing for you just let it soak. Then I rinse 4-5 times and sanitize with star san. Nothing else gets near my equipment.

Well, I just meant that chemical artificial lemon like you would expect soap to taste like, or lysol. Bottles were very well cleaned, some were never even used before so, unlikely the same contaminate in all bottles. Being a soda, there was no 'primary' fermentation stage... just direct to bottle, tested 4 days later then 1 week later, 2, 3, 4 weeks... on the 5th week I just dumped it.

Not too worried... thing is, after we mixed it, we gave it a taste before bottling, and kinda tasted 'off' right from the start. Just hoped maybe after a week it would improve but didn't.

I used B.Brite cleaner (which is pink powder). I had some left over from making beer. I soak for 10min, scrub with a bottle cleaner, then rinse 3x to get everything out. Haven't brewed in a while and used the last of the cleaner yesterday for the root beer, so plan to buy Star San next.

Been about 12h now and bottles are already pretty hard, using 500ml PET brown bottles and new (sanitized) caps. For that lime soda, after about 4 days, bottles were super hard, moved them from upstairs to the cold cellar. I also tested a bottle and carbonation was fine but again, tasted like how lemon all-purpose cleaner smells.

Root beer wise, tested before bottling and already tasted great... albeit flat and warm but, unlike the lime, it at least tasted good before bottling. I'm 75% certain it was just a bad bottle of extract.

Hopefully comes out well... had everything except the maltodextrin. That Zatarain's definitely has a hint of wintergreen or something, smelled it soon as the bottle was opened, but again, tasted a bit at bottling time and was pretty good already.

I need to look into forced carbonation ... rootbeer came out tasting fine, however, also has a yeasty smell/taste that's killing the rootbeer flavour. Bottled were hard after just over a day, some put into the fridge some into the cold cellar. Been find if not for the overpowering yeast. :S

I recommend Lalvin EC-1118 wine yeast for all soda making it will not impart any yeasty flavours. Its also $1 or less a package normally. You could also try Lallemand/Danstar CBC-1 its not supposed to impart any flavours either (its for pitching into filtered beer for cask and bottle conditioning).

If you go the keg root you will need dedicated o-rings, liquid side disconnect, beer line, and taps for your root beer. I got the pepsi smell out of my ball locks with a 2 hour oxy soak, so root beer will likely come out of the keg its self in 24hr or less. It will never come out of plastic.

Actually, I did use Lalvin EC-1118. Bought it from the local wine making supply shop the day I made it. They had it in the fridge so, assuming was still good.

Half the batch were re-used bottles and half were new, all new caps, everything sterilized thoroughly as well so... not sure why such a powerful yeasty taste/smell. Maybe if infected from the used bottles in some way, but, less likely from the new bottles. Hmm... :S

Have you tried Royal Rootbeer Extract? Its the best root beer I have ever had, any flavours from the yeast just add to the overall product and aren't pronounced. I do age it for a couple weeks at 55 before putting it in the fridge for a few days before drinking. So it might be yeasty inside those 3 weeks after carbing.

Did you rehydrate the yeast? I don't do this for beer, but I think the large amount of pure sucrose in rootbeer shocks the yeast to much when pitched dry.

I just follow the recipe on the bottle.

1 bottle extract
2 kg white sugar
17 liters of water
1 pack of EC-1118

dissolve sugar in 2 liters of boiling water, add 15 liters of room temp water (going for about 75-80F temp when pitching yeast, i just use tap water its fine here for soda). mix in bottle of extract. rehydrate yeast per package directions and mix in (i think its 1 cup of 95-100F boiled water). bottle in plastic beer bottles (I reuse commercial pop bottles that I oxy clean then starsan). store in dark place at 72F until bottles harden, then cellar for 2-3 weeks. chill well before serving.

I mix everything in a 5 gallon polypin that I dedicated to rootbeer. add each ingredient 1 at a time and close it up and shake to mix (ok when its full i just kinda roll it around a bit). this minimizes contact with possible contaminants and sticky rootbeer scented mess. when its all mixed I bottle using the attached spigot.

Burkhardt said:

Seal and carb at 35 psi for 3-4 days, 38-40 degrees. I have 4 epoxy rods in the dip tube, use 20 ft of 3/16 beer line---perfect flow. This is a household favorite.

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What force carbonator do you use? I want to carbonate my root beer but I don’t know what to use and how to do it. Any links to what you use?