A "root" beer.

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Aclay

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Ok so here is my idea for my next brew. A root beer. I know, I know you're thinking why would you want to use root beer extract to brew. I don't! I want to find the sassparilla and do a brown ale.

However, I know sasparillia is not the only flavoring in Root beer. What are the other spices/flavors/adjuncts/ect. that I could use to get it closer to the "root" beer flavor? This is one beer that I haven't found any recipes to.

:mug: I have to find a good brown ale recipe and tweak it, but that part won't be so hard. It'll be the spices that will be hard.

When should they be added? Anyone have any ideas as to what should be added to the secondary? Would brewing licorice be good? I think this will be a project that will take a few batches to perfect.

Thank you.
 
man, i wish there were some ideas about this. My brewing partner and I have been thinking about this as well.
 
Go dig up some Sassafrass root :D. Root beer, yeah you are looking at Licorice, possibly a little orange peel would work, but the main thing will be that distinctive medicinal 'twang' which you'd have to get from the root. I have heard of substituting Birch bark in soda. I would Definitely go with a fairly malty Brown Ale recipe, keep the bittering low. Perhaps some noble hops flavor and aroma would fit. I'd use something labeled as 'earthy'. For adding the root part, I'd make a tea first and add it in just at flame out (add more in secondary). Careful though, that stuff has coagulative properties iirc. I swear that stuff induces strange dreams. The one thing you might encounter is haziness, and I am not sure how you mitigate that.
 
Birch Bark would not be good, I think. The roots were once used as the source for wintergreen flavorings, and are similar to root beer, but with some differences, and more "kick", if you will.

Sasparilla might be interesting if you can find it. My grandmother used to make sasp. tea, but I have never looked for it. Used the roots.

I'd suggest making a strong tea with the roots of whatever, and then try and figure out how much to add to the wort once you realize the strength. You could lose some of the aroma/flavor if you boil it too long.
 
Try an outdoor farmer's market for the sasafras roots, I found some years ago at the big outdoor market in Downtown Detroit....or also try a healthfood/natural food store.
 
here in SW Michigan we do have some sassafras trees, so finding the roots shouldn't be too hard. The licorice root they sell at my LHBS. As I said before I think this will take a few batches to figure out precisely. Any one else have any intresting ideas for this brew?
 
I was looking at doing this awhile back and found the following info that you might want to consider. "Sassafras bark was banned by the FDA due to the carcinogenic properties of its constituent chemical safrole in 1960."
 
I wouldn't be using the bark, I'd be using root. I could also use leaf, which is used to make sassafras tea, but that wouldn't have the "root" beer flavor. Thank you for the information though.
 
found something about it, and because I care I'm going to share it with you. This is from Wikipedia.

"There are hundreds of root beer brands in the United States, produced in every U.S. state,[4] and there is no standardized recipe. The primary ingredient, sassafras, is complemented with other flavors, common ones being vanilla, wintergreen, cherry tree bark, licorice root, sarsaparilla root, nutmeg, anise, molasses, cinnamon and clove.

Both alcoholic and non-alcoholic root beers have a thick and foamy head when poured, often enhanced through the addition of yucca extract"

So, now it's just choosing what flavors to go with. What kind of project did I get myself into!

I'm thinking I'll go with Sassafras, licorice root, vanilla, molasses, and nutmeg for my first whack at it. We'll see how she turns out. Now I need a good American Brown Ale recipe to go with it.
 
Aclay said:
I'm thinking I'll go with Sassafras, licorice root, vanilla, molasses, and nutmeg for my first whack at it. We'll see how she turns out. Now I need a good American Brown Ale recipe to go with it.

Here's mine if you want.

You can do it as a PM like I did or just as an extract with special grains.... The vistory can actually be converted in a partial mash...or it can just be for color or flavor in a steep...My Pm was 2 gallons @ 90 minutes (and 2 gallons sparge)....The strike temp was 154 degrees (170 degree water added to 69 degree grain, fyi)

Old Bog Road Brown Ale

6# Light DME
1lb Victory
1lb Special Roast
1lb Crystal 60L
.25 Chocolate
1oz Cascade(60)
.25oz Galena(60)
.5oz Fuggles(20)
.5oz Fuggles(5)
 
I've done both birch and root beer. Both were disappointing, I think because the flavors really need a high level of sweetness rather than bittering.

Keep us posted.
 
okay, so I went to my LHBS the other day and found that they sell Indian Sassparilla, and low and behold there on the back of the spice pack was a recipe for Sassparilla! All of the ingredients are avalible at my LHBS and the local grocery store. I don't remember the ingreadients off of the top of my head, but I do remember wintergreen, licorice, anise, and cassia. It's fairly close to what I had planned. I think I'll still throw in a vanilla bean. Now with these ingreadients it will have the bittering quality already. This begs the question; should I use hops in this recipe or just go with the spices in place of the hops?

Here is another interesting thing that I found out about the root beer beer. The majority of the spices are added after flame out and left to steep for an hour or two in the wort. To make just root beer it requires that you boil two gallons of plain water and add the spices to the cooling water. This makes it perfect to make a beer out of. As I stated earlier, instead of using just water you would add the spices to what ever wort you were making at the end of the boil. Instead of cooling right away, however, you would have to lid you wort and allow it to steep for a bit before cooling, or allow it to steep while in the cooling bath. This style would still work with a wort chiller, but you would have to steep it before send in it through the chiller.

I'm still researching this style and I'll keep you all up to date when I evetually brew this up. I need to get my current batches whittled down enough to have the bottles to do it. SWMBO insists we don't have the room to keep all the bottles that I would like to have.

Any one else that would like to interject something please feel free to do so.
What style of beer do you think this would go good with? So far I'm leaning toward the brown ale, just to get the look of "Root Beer," but I'm open to other styles.
 
okay, so I went to my LHBS the other day and found that they sell Indian Sassparilla, and low and behold there on the back of the spice pack was a recipe for Sassparilla! All of the ingredients are avalible at my LHBS and the local grocery store. I don't remember the ingreadients off of the top of my head, but I do remember wintergreen, licorice, anise, and cassia. It's fairly close to what I had planned. I think I'll still throw in a vanilla bean. Now with these ingreadients it will have the bittering quality already. This begs the question; should I use hops in this recipe or just go with the spices in place of the hops?

Here is another interesting thing that I found out about the root beer beer. The majority of the spices are added after flame out and left to steep for an hour or two in the wort. To make just root beer it requires that you boil two gallons of plain water and add the spices to the cooling water. This makes it perfect to make a beer out of. As I stated earlier, instead of using just water you would add the spices to what ever wort you were making at the end of the boil. Instead of cooling right away, however, you would have to lid you wort and allow it to steep for a bit before cooling, or allow it to steep while in the cooling bath. This style would still work with a wort chiller, but you would have to steep it before send in it through the chiller.

I'm still researching this style and I'll keep you all up to date when I evetually brew this up. I need to get my current batches whittled down enough to have the bottles to do it. SWMBO insists we don't have the room to keep all the bottles that I would like to have.

Any one else that would like to interject something please feel free to do so.
What style of beer do you think this would go good with? So far I'm leaning toward the brown ale, just to get the look of "Root Beer," but I'm open to other styles.

I know it's been a while, but how did this come out?
 
Has anyone tried using Root Beer or Birch Beer extract in a recipe to get the flavor? I saw a packet at my LHBS today and I was thinking about doing something.
 
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