How do you make root beer creamier??

I've made two batches of Gnome extract root beer. I make it following the directions using white sugar and Red Star yeast. It is not as good as I hoped. I kinda just tastes like fizzy root beer flavored sugar water.

How can I adjust the recipe to make it creamier or better?

Thanks, Doug

Substitute some maltodextrin for the regular sugar, that will improve the mouthfell. Try swapping a pound first.

Maltodextrin will make your root beer creamier. I've added 2 oz to a 5 gallon batch before to give it a nice mouth feel. Yooper tells a story about her son making root beer jello by using too much so be careful. From all accounts root beer jello is not as good as it sounds.

malto-dextrine is one way. They sell it at the homebrew stores. It gives some body and fullness. Be careful, though- my son used too much by accident and he made root beer jell-o!

You can also try using 1/2 brown sugar and 1/2 regular sugar for the sugar called for in the recipe- that helps.

I've never used Gnome extract, but it's possible that the extract isn't that great or that the "recipe" isn't great. I've used Mccormicks (the grocery store flavoring one) and it was surprisingly good, and I've used Sprecher's without adding any further ingredients. Sprecher's is only for kegging gear, though.

Ok, that's funny. Your were typing your answer when I was typing my story about you.

While I was carefully formulating my reply, both David and Nurmey gave their replies. So, I'm not a slow learner, simply reiterating what they say------but I do agree!

(And Nurmey is right. Root beer Jello is not as good as you think it good be. Trust me).

Jeez- she did it again!!!!!!!!

Girl fight!

Nurmey said:

Girl fight!

Click to expand...

Oh, man- now I have to ban us to a different place!

I've had good results using all Turbinado sugar (ie sugar in the raw etc). It is unrefined or less refined sugar than table sugar and IIRC, that means it still has some molasses in it or something like that. I also use 8-16 oz of malto dextrin in addition to the normal amount of sugar. IMO, malto dextrin is not a substitute for sugar as it is not sweet or not very sweet anyway. Taste some and see for yourself. OTOH, most of the extract recipes call for way too much sugar for my taste. I cut it back by at least 20% usually. I've had good results using McCormick's extract, but it takes a lot of it and it's not cheap. I have not tried Sprechers yet, but plan to soon. Sprechers is pricey and especially so if you have it shipped. I once tried making root beer from scratch, ie from the raw roots and herbs. It was absolutely horrible. Don't know exactly what went wrong, but I think basically it was wrong proportions on more than a few of the ingredients. I'll probably give it another shot someday, but I'm not in a big hurry to do so at the moment.