After spending hours on researching Root Beer recipes, reading books, stories of microbrewed rootbeer, and looking at forum posts - I'm puzzled at a couple discoveries.
I ran across an article for someone who makes root beer with Sassafras. When asked about this, apprarently he has a safrole removing process that removes it from the Sassafras bark/root itself. I thought that was pretty expensive considering how many articles state that exact thing - it's too costly. Yet from the looks of what he did - it couldn't have been that expensive unless he used extracts early on and then made enough money to get the necessary equipment to do this.
I'm curious as to how breweries microbrew root beer and I'm finding nothing on the web that explains any of this. I'm not so much worried about the ingredients other than do they use sassafras root/bark/leaves or do they use extract for that...the other roots don't have the dark cloud over them like Sassafras does.
Does anyone have any insight on this?
I'll like to start and keep a small side business for my daughters but only go to farmer's markets and arts fests...nothing big and not turning it into a business by itself (unless something drastic changes). The application would be to make 200 gallons a year MAYBE. Like I said - small operation. I love to homebrew though and just using extracts leaves me dissappointed I guess. I want it as natural as possible and I plan on using turbinado or demerara sugar. For me, it's about making a great tasting root beer. I also plan on making my own vanilla extract the right way...no imitation stuff.
Thanks in advance.
I ran across an article for someone who makes root beer with Sassafras. When asked about this, apprarently he has a safrole removing process that removes it from the Sassafras bark/root itself. I thought that was pretty expensive considering how many articles state that exact thing - it's too costly. Yet from the looks of what he did - it couldn't have been that expensive unless he used extracts early on and then made enough money to get the necessary equipment to do this.
I'm curious as to how breweries microbrew root beer and I'm finding nothing on the web that explains any of this. I'm not so much worried about the ingredients other than do they use sassafras root/bark/leaves or do they use extract for that...the other roots don't have the dark cloud over them like Sassafras does.
Does anyone have any insight on this?
I'll like to start and keep a small side business for my daughters but only go to farmer's markets and arts fests...nothing big and not turning it into a business by itself (unless something drastic changes). The application would be to make 200 gallons a year MAYBE. Like I said - small operation. I love to homebrew though and just using extracts leaves me dissappointed I guess. I want it as natural as possible and I plan on using turbinado or demerara sugar. For me, it's about making a great tasting root beer. I also plan on making my own vanilla extract the right way...no imitation stuff.
Thanks in advance.
Here is a link I found about toxic oils in case you want to use some (and care!):
