malt-based rootbeer?

When i was making my batch of rogue hazelnut brown nectar clone yesterday, i tasted the runnings and they reminded me immediately of the flavors that play supporting roles in Barqs rootbeer.

So much that i had to go get some rootbeer before the boil was over, because i kept thinking about it.

So now I'm thinking about combining the same grain bill with a bottle of rootbeer extract.

Surely this has been done before?

I've used a caramel malt for some of my sodas before, but I have yet to use it in a rootbeer. I've been thinking about it, but just haven't gotten around to it yet.

I was wondering about this myself. You could do a mash and and extract just enough sugars so that you wouldnt have to prime when bottling. Then sweeten with lactose or some other kind of nonfermentable. Does this sound like it would work for a soda?

Well, that would be more of a hard rootbeer. Which I'm not exactly opposed to.

That's not exactly what I meant. I was wondering if you could do a mash and get just enough sugars for the soda to carbonate naturally but not enough to make it alcoholic. That way you could get the malt character and body that you would want from the grain and use that as a more familiar base to build flavors. But I am not opposed to a hard root beer either.

I am also interested if anyone can comment on recipes or techniques for soda/root beer from mash.

I'm moving soon, but when I get settled intend to try it out and post recipes/results.