Root Beer < 2% ABV

3 gallons Filtered Water
1.5 lbs Raw Cane Sugar
1 lbs Brown Sugar, Dark

4.00 oz Sarsaparilla Root Bark
2.00 oz Sassafras Root Bark
1.00 oz Wintergreen leaf
1.00 oz Licorice Root

1.00 ea Vanilla Bean
1.00 oz Wild Cherry Root Bark
2.00 oz Ginger Root

1.5oz Maltodextrine

5g yeast


This is my first try at making a root beer. I plan to let it ferment for 12 hours to get a point or two of booze in there. The ingredients were way more expensive than I imagined. This 3 gallon recipe cost me about $25, so it better be good.

Any suggestions?

The ingredients are still in plastic bags and the aroma in my kitchen is filled with root beer.

Sassafras has the strongest and most root beerish aroma. Sarsaparilla is similar, but much less fragrant.

I think I'm also going to use some maltodextrin or steep some carafoam.

What yeast should I use?

I have:

Fleishman's bread yeast
us-05
t-58

Anyone? Anyone?

pic of the flavor ingredients

from left to right: wild cherry root bark, licorice root, vanilla bean, sassafras root bark, sarsaparilla root bark, ginger root and wintergreen

I have never done a RB, bus us-05 is always a safe bet.

How are you stopping fermentation and then carbonating? Campden tablets and kegging?
I would go with US-05, no need for yeast flavors, I suppose.

VonRunkel said:

I have never done a RB, bus us-05 is always a safe bet.

Click to expand...

For RB I really don't think the yeast will matter much -- especially since you only intend to give it a short ferm. Just keep it w/in temp ranges for the yeast you use so you don't get any unwanted off-flavors. I got some bad ones from US-05 at too warm of a ferm temp last year and these were produced very early in the fermentation.

Also, I've brewed a few RB's and finally developed a recipe last year that was what I wanted. You might check it out for ideas. See this thread https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f95/root-beer-recipe-297882/.

MrOH said:

How are you stopping fermentation and then carbonating? Campden tablets and kegging?
I would go with US-05, no need for yeast flavors, I suppose.

Click to expand...

The plan is to pitch a small amount of yeast. Let it work for 8 hours. Bottle it. Let it sit in the bottle at 70* for 24 hours and then keep it refrigerated.

I used 5g of Fleischmann's yeast.



The post boil sample tasted sort of like root beer. Maybe a little too much licorice root and not quite enough sassafras was my first impression, but I think it will be tasty regardless. I may add a little water at bottling.

Sampled it. It was well carbonated after two days. The bakers yeast didn't produce any off flavors, but I used way too much of it. 2 grams would have been plenty. I used the method where all the yeast is left in the bottle. The yeast wasn't a good yeast to have sitting in the bottle. Thick and clumpy with floaters. I'll use an ale yeast or champagne yeast next time. It did make soda, though.

Carbonation makes a huge difference in the flavor. The pre-carbed samples tasted weak. The mini fermentation and carbonation amplified everything.

The end result is old school root beer, but I definitely need to make some tweaks to the recipe. The overall flavor is unbalanced. The 1oz of licorice root is really powerful and it dominates the brew. I may delete it completely or just use 0.50oz. It needs another ounce or two of sassafras and maybe a half gallon more of water. Not bad for the first try.

The licorice root faded after a week to a tolerable level, so 1oz may not have been too much after all. It was really strong two days after being brewed.