Sassafras/sarsaparilla root beer recipe?

:rockin: That is great news. Im glad everyone enjoyed it and that it all worked out despite your ninja like friends antics...lol Well you now know for sure that you have a solid recipe to build from.

Hello! I'm interested in making this, but I have a couple questions about the bottling. I've read a lot about exploding bottles with root beer; is this a risk during the 3 days at room temperature, and is there a chance of it blowing up once in the fridge? If the root beer returns to room temp after a few weeks in the fridge, will the yeast continue carbonating?

Thanks for sharing your recipe! I'm excited to try it.

GeorgiaBulldawg said:

Hello! I'm interested in making this, but I have a couple questions about the bottling. I've read a lot about exploding bottles with root beer; is this a risk during the 3 days at room temperature, and is there a chance of it blowing up once in the fridge? If the root beer returns to room temp after a few weeks in the fridge, will the yeast continue carbonating?

Thanks for sharing your recipe! I'm excited to try it.

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Never bottle with only glass unless you have a flip-top or don't mind recapping once a day to check carbonation. Always have one plastic bottle as a tester and understand that even when you throw them into the fridge the yeast will continue to propagate, producing CO2 and alcohol, until the temp of solution is cold enough for the yeast to flocculate (drop out of solution and compact on the bottom). I've had batches carb up in 8 hours or 72 hours. There's too much risk of bombs in following a guideline of 1 day, 2 days, or 3 days. Always test once a day, always.

Yeast will not die until a looooong period of time has passed. Many months could go by. If you bring it back to temp it will start up it's sugar eating producing CO2.

djbradle said:

Never bottle with only glass unless you have a flip-top or don't mind recapping once a day to check carbonation. Always have one plastic bottle as a tester and understand that even when you throw them into the fridge the yeast will continue to propagate, producing CO2 and alcohol, until the temp of solution is cold enough for the yeast to flocculate (drop out of solution and compact on the bottom). I've had batches carb up in 8 hours or 72 hours. There's too much risk of bombs in following a guideline of 1 day, 2 days, or 3 days. Always test once a day, always.

Yeast will not die until a looooong period of time has passed. Many months could go by. If you bring it back to temp it will start up it's sugar eating producing CO2.

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This is exactly what I do. I use bail top bottles and I always have at least one 2 liter plastic bottle that I use as a test bottle. Once the plastic becomes very hard to squeeze, its done. By that time I will also crack open a glass bottle to see how much it is carbed and flavor. If all is well, then in the fridge it goes. Recently I tried pasteurization and it worked amazingly. Once in the fridge the yeast go kind of dormant, but not completely. Pasteurization though will kill the yeast. So if you pasteurize, then you can get the carbonation up to the desired amount, pasteurize, and then you will always have root beer on hand and no bottle bombs.

Thanks for the info guys. I have heard about pasteurizing home brewed soda, but I think I'll just stick with the plastic bottles the first time around. What temps do you use to pasteurize? I've read 190 for 10 minutes, and 160 for 20 minutes. It seems like it's best to do it at as low a temperature as possible to avoid a bottle bursting.

GeorgiaBulldawg said:

Thanks for the info guys. I have heard about pasteurizing home brewed soda, but I think I'll just stick with the plastic bottles the first time around. What temps do you use to pasteurize? I've read 190 for 10 minutes, and 160 for 20 minutes. It seems like it's best to do it at as low a temperature as possible to avoid a bottle bursting.

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I did 190 for 10 minutes. Worked perfect for me.

Thanks for all the advice. I'm excited to try out your recipe!

Crazy8 said:

Recently I tried pasteurization and it worked amazingly. Once in the fridge the yeast go kind of dormant, but not completely. Pasteurization though will kill the yeast. So if you pasteurize, then you can get the carbonation up to the desired amount, pasteurize, and then you will always have root beer on hand and no bottle bombs.

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I haven't searched your threads yet but if you could outline your process I would like to try it too. Does it reduce carbonation? Did you notice a clearly flocculated bottle after a certain period of time at fridge temps. Boil in irish moss ever?

djbradle said:

I haven't searched your threads yet but if you could outline your process I would like to try it too. Does it reduce carbonation? Did you notice a clearly flocculated bottle after a certain period of time at fridge temps. Boil in irish moss ever?

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Process:
-Grab bottles out of fridge (maybe its better to let them warm up to room temp?)
-Heat water up in a deep enough pot, to 190 degrees.
-When target temp is reached, put bottles into pot, but do not crowd.
-Put lid on pot? If you can? I could, so I did.
-Keep stove on but take off of heat so water does not get hotter.
-Set timer to 10 minutes
-After 10 minutes remove bottles (with oven mitt) from pot and set on counter top to cool down.
-Place pot back onto burner and get water temp back up to 190 degrees
-Repeat steps above for remaining bottles until all bottles have been pasteurized.

Does it reduce the carbonation? I would say no. I had some bottles that were carbed perfectly and some that were off a little. When it comes to dropping the yeast into my 16oz bottles I don't have an accurate way, yet, to measure so I use the tip of a knife to scoop up the yeast and eyeball it. So that's probably what led to my inconsistencies in the carbing.

Flocculation? No I have not noticed anything like that after pasteurizing.

Irish moss, I do have, just have not tried it yet. I have every intent to though. Even though I have a solid recipe, there are still certain things I would like to improve on to try and make it even better.

You put the yeast in after bottling? Wouldn't it be easier to put the yeast in the pot right before bottling so you can measure accurately and have a consistent amount of yeast in each bottle?

Do you still use the same method of brewing root beer as you mentioned in this thread? There you say to put the yeast into the pot first, then pour into bottles.

Masterjuggler said:

You put the yeast in after bottling? Wouldn't it be easier to put the yeast in the pot right before bottling so you can measure accurately and have a consistent amount of yeast in each bottle?

Do you still use the same method of brewing root beer as you mentioned in this thread? There you say to put the yeast into the pot first, then pour into bottles.

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Good catch. I did not notice that. No do not do it that way. Add the yeast to the carboy/bottle not the pot, ale pale, etc. The reason for this is that if you add the yeast into the entire batch and THEN start filling your carboys and/or bottles, there is no guarantee that there will be consistent and even distribution of the yeast into each container. Thus leading to some bottles being over carbed and others possibly being under carbed. If you fill the carboys/bottles with the root beer first and accurately measure the yeast per container, that's about as close to a guarantee you can get to all of them being equally carbed as the others.

Does that all make sense?

Yeah. I added the yeast to the pot in my batch, and it carbed all the bottles pretty evenly, but I guess I just got lucky. On my next batch I'll add it to the bottles instead.

I'm guessing you just put the yeast in and shake the bottles for a few seconds? How long should it take to be sure it has all dissolved?

Masterjuggler said:

Yeah. I added the yeast to the pot in my batch, and it carbed all the bottles pretty evenly, but I guess I just got lucky. On my next batch I'll add it to the bottles instead.

I'm guessing you just put the yeast in and shake the bottles for a few seconds? How long should it take to be sure it has all dissolved?

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Well with Carboys, I will rotate them 3 times in three different positions and shake for 10 seconds on each position...so 30 seconds for carboys. Bottles I will shake for about 10-15 seconds.

Crazy8 said:

Flocculation? No I have not noticed anything like that after pasteurizing.

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Basically the ability for yeast to drop out of solution and compact on the bottom.. After time though it will happen naturally and a soda should clear fairly well in the fridge at 40 degrees. It just might take some time. After about a week and a half now the root beer is clearing well.

Awesome. Yeah I may have to try the moss this weekend if my other hobbies will allow me to. I'm very curious how much clearing up I can do and if it will affect flavor at all.

So it's been a week since I put the gelatin in a bottle and it certainly has gotten clearer, but it can't compete with a filter. Also, there is so much crap resting at the bottom, as soon as I moved the bottle, it started spreading and put chunks of it into the root beer.

The color difference obviously got more... different (can't think of the right word lol).


And light goes through it much easier. I put my phone behind them with a flashlight app turned on so the screen is a bright white.


I tasted both bottles just now because I need them for the next batch anyway, and the gelatin one didn't taste AS nasty, but was still pretty gross.

I should be getting my starsan today so this time I'll follow your base recipe to the letter, and I'll add the yeast to the bottles, not the pot. I also won't be adding any gelatin this time, that was just an experiment. i'll start working on clearing up my rootbeer once I have a recipe that doesn't taste like vomit.

Masterjuggler...do both of these bottles contain gelatin?

On a sanitizing note, when you used bleach was it full strength, did you rinse it out and then allow to dry? Bleach and yeast are a bad combo, and you may be tasting/smelling TCA aka cork taint. It can develop pretty quickly. Do not forget that StarSan is just one part of your equation since it is a sanitizer, not a cleaner.

Only the left bottle contained gelatin. It's a comparison between the non-gelatin bottle and the gelatin bottle, both of which have been in a ~35*F fridge for a week at the time those pics were taken.

I definitely used it at full strength. I probably used way too much actually. What I did was I took a funnel, put it on the bottles, and poured in some bleach up until the first line on the bottom of the bottle (kind of hard to see in those pics), which is about 4 or 5 Tbsp per 16oz bottle. Then I filled the rest up with water. If I have to use bleach again for whatever reason, I'll only use a tsp or 1/2tsp per bottle.

I did rinse with hot water (actually it was too hot on the first bottle I rinsed and it shrunk a bit lol) several times, and let it dry upside down on a drying rack, then capped them as soon as I thought they were dry.

I have no way of knowing if it was the bleach reacting with the yeast. I think I got the bleach out of the bottles pretty well because I did use water almost hot enough to shrink the bottles to rinse them, but I know it is hard to totally get bleach off of something.

This is where using a protein based cleaner and sanitizer is awesome. You don't have to rinse, its actually best if you dont, and the yeast feed off the protein. Its win win.

Has anyone here kegged and forced carb this recipe instead of using yeast ? I'm thinking of using gelatin to clarify in a carboy then rack to keg and then force carb.

@Crazy8- how much starsan would you use for a 16.9oz bottle? If I need 1oz per 5gal, then I need 0.025oz, or 0.15tsp (or less than 1/4tsp). Do I just measure half way of a 1/4tsp per bottle and fill the rest with water? It seems like it would be hard to get a spray bottle to coat the inside of the bottles.

mart242 said:

Has anyone here kegged and forced carb this recipe instead of using yeast ? I'm thinking of using gelatin to clarify in a carboy then rack to keg and then force carb.

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I'm interested as well.. I'm not big on yeast carbonation in soda period.. Now that I've got almost everything together for my postmix soda gun system, I'm thinking of putting in a root beer tap as well.. The bar gun that I bought already has a port that's tainted with root beer, so I may try making and kegging syrup, but IMO even postmix with freshly made syrup can't touch kegged root beer out of a tap..

Masterjuggler said:

@Crazy8- how much starsan would you use for a 16.9oz bottle? If I need 1oz per 5gal, then I need 0.025oz, or 0.15tsp (or less than 1/4tsp). Do I just measure half way of a 1/4tsp per bottle and fill the rest with water? It seems like it would be hard to get a spray bottle to coat the inside of the bottles.

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To be honest, when I sanitize, I do everything all at once. So I will pour the sanstar into my ale pale along with my measuring cups, funnel, etc. Then I will start filling the bottles one by one with the stuff in the ale pale. After I have those all filled then I use 1 gallon of it to fill my brew pot. Then I will usually dump the stuff in the pot back into the ale pale and the same with the bottles and use all of that to fill my carboys and 2 liter bottle(s). So I say all of that to say, the only measuring I do is the Sanstar that I initially put into 5 gallons of water. Hope this helps some how.

Actually, I think it does help me. You reminded me I need to sanitize my pot too, so I can just pour that into my bottles. Thanks.

Just tasted my second batch of root beer, and it tasted just like my last one... Like feet.

The only thing I can think of that I did wrong this time was I used sassafras that was dug up in the summer. I guess I'll have to wait until the winter... Crap.

Do you just hoard sassafras in the winter and hope it'll last the rest of the year?

I used "summer" sassafras and mine came out fine.

Well sadly Sassafras doesn't grow up here in the frozen tundra of Minnesota so I order mine online. But as I have stated before, based on what I have heard and of course results may vary, that Sassafras harvested in the summer has all of its sap in the branches and twigs. In the winter the sap moves down to the roots and stays there. I have no personal experience with harvesting Sassafras but based on my findings, if you harvest in the summer then take from the branches. If you harvest in the winter, then take from the roots. Of course you also have the option of buying online if all else fails.

I did buy my sassafras online, but the guy digs it up fresh. If I order it in the summer, it will be dug up in the summer. Where do you order it that you know it will be dug up in the winter?

Masterjuggler said:

I did buy my sassafras online, but the guy digs it up fresh. If I order it in the summer, it will be dug up in the summer. Where do you order it that you know it will be dug up in the winter?

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Well I don't really know anything like that. I was using the summer/winter info as if you were harvisting it yourself. I always order from Mountain Rose Herbs or Herbco.com

Well the guy is harvesting it as it is ordered. It says so on his ebay listing (dug on the day of shipping it says), and the roots I got definitely had that "just dug up" look to them. I would have ordered from Herbco, but the guy was selling 2 pounds of roots for $15 with free shipping. http://www.ebay.com/itm/SASSAFRAS-R...711?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19e1f4edff

So whether it's me or the guy digging it up, it's still in summer.

I've been thinking that the batch I just made didn't really taste "bad", more like it just didn't taste "right". If my last batch tasted like feet, this one tasted like feet that were just cleaned.

It may be that the sassafras just isn't strong enough, but I really can't identify what flavors are there and what aren't. I'll have to try making a half gallon batch without sassafras and see if that changes anything. Or maybe I should try doubling the sassafras. I'm not sure.

Well the next possible option is to maybe buy from a source online and see if there is a difference in taste. I know it is more expensive at other places outside of ebay, but I would think those that grow for the sake of harvesting, especially in a controlled farm like environment, would likely produce a superior product. Plus Im also a believer in "you get what you pay for". I can say that many have had great success with the recipes I have posted and many have loved how they have turned out. Not sure where that foot taste would be coming from but things like this is where we try new things and experiment.

I'll add to this by mentioning that the sassafras I received was so pungent that after opening the packaging and rinsing in the kitchen sink...the whole house smelled (heavenly) strongly of root beer for a week. Also, I've made pain Sarsaparilla soda on my first attempt, so with my roots in particular, there was a night and day difference with the sassafras roots used.

Maybe I just got lucky with my timing though. Looks like we used the same supplier, too.

Yeah, the only difference was I ordered mine unwashed, so I paid $15.

I remember when I was drying my sassafras and de-barking it, it stunk up my house to the point of being a little nauseating (and keep in mind I love the smell of sassafras). In fact my oven still smells a little bit like sassafras, even though it's been a few weeks. The rest of my family was ready to kill me LOL.

Yeah I love the smell of my house after I brew. Its absolutely sweet and wonderful. Its a great thing.

My attempt at brewing your recipe Crazy8 with some modifications, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f95/first-hard-root-attempt-feedback-433656/#post5533344

pkrath84 said:

^Its REALLY good stuff!

My only problem has been hunting down sassafras bark. It's unavialable everywhere including amazon right now, everone's out. I just bought 2lbs of fresh dug/cut sassafras on ebay... Anyone have experience with the fresh root? How much to use?

Thanks!

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I have always heard of using a whole piece of root but if you want to be exact you can chop it up and measure a quarter cup that way

I finally started another batch with the new sassafras I got (half gallon batch). I'm not sure if I made it quite right because I must have boiled it on too high a flame, and by the time I added the sugar, there was only half of the quart that I put in. I just added a quart and a half to bring it back up to a half gallon.

What I'm really posting about is I thought you guys would be interested to know, I tried using a piece of a cotton tee-shirt for the filter instead of cheese cloth, and it worked great. I can see through my root beer after pouring it through the tee-shirt twice. It started filtering more slowly as it collected crap from the brew, but I just used a few pieces of cloth to keep it going.

Well I just tasted my latest batch after getting the new sassafras, and it still tastes funny. Slightly better than before, but still feet-y.

What else could be causing this? I can take out or replace some ingredients and try again, but I have no idea what I should start with.

I had someone else taste it, and they think the yeast could be the problem, because they've seen yeast smell like this before. Could that be the problem? I have some normal active dry yeast I can try instead of the champaign yeast.

I dont recall with out going back to look, which Ill admit Im a little lazy to do right now, but are you using the exact recipe I posted up or have you made alterations to it? If you have made changes, could you post what you're working with and I will take a look at see what I can do for you.

I used the exact recipe (a half gallon batch though, so I cut all ingredients in 4) and the directions you posted here.

The only thing I changed from those instructions/recipe is I put the yeast in the bottles instead of the pot, and I used vanilla extract instead of flavoring. I also haven't tried adding salt yet, but I don't think that's the problem.