Good Deal on Root Beer extract

I just saw this on SlickDeals and jumped on it. The price is considerably less than what my LHBS sells the bottles for ($6.99 + tax per bottle). I also saved an extra 5% and got free shipping by doing subscribe and save.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00122E62S/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

The recipe I make is:

Add the following to 1-2 gallons water:
4# table sugar
4oz bottle of Zatarain's Root Beer extract
2 Tbsp Lyle's Black Treacle
2 Tbsp vanilla extract (pure, of course)

Dissolve sugar and add mixture to corny. Top off to 5 gallons. Carb to 3.5-4 volumes.

This is an absolutely wonderful root beer. My favorite so far!

EDIT: FYI, the deal at the time I wrote this was for $18.41 for a case of 12 bottles of extract.

Thanks, this seems like a fantastic price! In for one.

Oh, and do you use "golden" or "dark" treacle?

Dark treacle. Molasses would probably be a good substitute.

wow, great find! my local place charges 10 bucks a bottle for this stuff

I picked up one of those awhile back, Its by far my favorite root beer. I have only found it one place near hear and it was 6.99+tax so it was a great deal. If you havent tried Zatarains root beer you should.

This sounds great. You do have to add yeast as well.. right? What kind?
Does the RB boil up in the fermenter as much as some beers do.. If you do 5 gals in a 6 g carboy and brew till it doesn't bubble any more.. can you carb it like beer? X amount of sugar in a bottling bucket.. then to bottles? or is it best in a corny?

I remember stories by my dad about bottle bombs.. arggh

ThreeGnomes said:

This sounds great. You do have to add yeast as well.. right? What kind?
Does the RB boil up in the fermenter as much as some beers do.. If you do 5 gals in a 6 g carboy and brew till it doesn't bubble any more.. can you carb it like beer? X amount of sugar in a bottling bucket.. then to bottles? or is it best in a corny?

I remember stories by my dad about bottle bombs.. arggh

Click to expand...

If you're making root beer then you don't want to put it in a fermenter unless you want it as alcoholic as a regular beer.

The idea is to carbonate first before a bulk fermentation step, so yes you can do it in a bottling bucket and then into bottles, but keep in mind that doing it that way you're not just asking for bottle bombs, you're begging for them.

IMHO root beer is best in it's own dedicated corny. No runaway fermentation and no bottle bombs.

ThreeGnomes said:

This sounds great. You do have to add yeast as well.. right? What kind?
Does the RB boil up in the fermenter as much as some beers do.. If you do 5 gals in a 6 g carboy and brew till it doesn't bubble any more.. can you carb it like beer? X amount of sugar in a bottling bucket.. then to bottles? or is it best in a corny?

I remember stories by my dad about bottle bombs.. arggh

Click to expand...

I keg and carbonate with a CO2 bottle so I don't use yeast or bottles. As stated above, you just need to mix this up, you don't need to ferment it at all. This is Root Beer soda, not Root Beer ale! ;P If you don't have a kegging system, you may want to look at some other root beer recipes on here. I know Yooper's is popular and is designed for bottles (2L IIRC). Regardless, the deal above is phenomenal.

I would think you could use a small amount of yeast, mix, and then pour or transfer to 2 liter bottles if you're a cheap@$$ like myself?

Came today! Should last me awhile!