Root beer?

I heard you can brew root beer but it's got a 0.5% alcohol content or something. Curious.

Does it taste like the stuff they jerk out at the Stewart's stand down the street?

Ditto for ginger ale.

I've brewed a batch with my kids from a simple extract kit that has you add sugar. It was fair to bad... I need to work on it. I'm not sure what percentage you can count on, alcohol wise, but just knowing there is yeast and sugar involved it has to have some. The key is to allow the yeast to eat just enough sugar to carbonate the drink. As soon as it has, refridgerate the stuff to dormant the yeast. I don't know much but hope that helps.

I can speak for ginger ale. It doesn't taste much like the cheap stuff you buy at the store. It tastes BETTER!

You can control your ginger:sugar ratio to make a really sweet ginger ale (not for me) or a strong spicy ginger ale (yay!)

Mostly, make a simple batch and keep notes. Then adjust how much ginger and sugar you use. Then take more notes.

Finally, add spices and other adjunct to make new flavors.

The alcohol is negligible and I can't taste the yeast for spicier ginger ale.

Root beer will have a small percentage of alcohol if you use yeast to carbonate it with.

So if that is a concern you have two options.

1.) Bottle your root beer into 2litter bottles and use a carbonater/home made carbonation cap to carbonate them.

2.) Keg it.

Step #1 is normally the cheapest and for the most part pretty easy if you purchase the carbonater caps. But I would build them rather than purchase them.

Step #2 is the easiest. I fill the keg with water, carbonate it and then add the sugar and root beer extract. Shake the hell out of it and you are good to go.

As far as what extract is good, I've only used Gnome (for both my root beer and my cream soda) and have been very, very happy with it!

Homemade carbonator caps.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJD0bv9kLAQ]YouTube - How to Make A Carbonation Cap[/ame]

There will be some minute alcohol, but if it's done right, it won't be noticeable. I made some birch beer with the kids and ended up with exploding bottles, and looking back at it, probably a fair amount of alcohol. I liked it. Well, the flavor was ok, but it was fun.

Doing it again, I'd do it differently. For one, I now have a co2 system, so I can keg it. Second, I'd probably try Gnome kits. The one I used wasn't as good as I expected, and the cream soda we made was pretty bitter too.

Just remember to keep it cold and you won't have to worry about alcohol.

Second question, what is the legal limit for open bottle alcohol content in my jurisdiction XD I'm sure it'll take gallons of this stuff to hit the alcohol present in one beer, the cops might not care or might not know though if I'm driving down the street with a soda bottle.

Also I got some rootbeer from the market today and it tasted kind of like bread. o.o;

I just made some (foce carb'd) and it was great. A little too much bite after carbonation, so I'm going to drop it down a few volumes.

As for alcohol content, N.A. beer is 0.5% and cannot be sold on Sunday In Ga. I expect the cops reaction would depend more on the mood, etc. than law

I have seen recipies that use dry ice to carb rootbeer. I would imagin you swould have to be very carful to keep it from exploding.

hydrometer readings will give you ABV if you are concerned about it

thats better...

Open container? I doubt the soda would be tested unless you BAL was over the limit & you tried to use "It's just root beer." as a defense.

I make a keg of birch beer occasionally. I rarely see it for sale.

wilbanba said:

hygrometer readings will give you ABV if you are concerned about it

Click to expand...

Nope. A hygrometer will tell you how humid it is outside. A hyDrometer will tell you the potential alcohol in a beverage by subtracting FG from OG. Afterwards, it's useless for that.

That said, I spoke with a cop friend of mine about this. In Ga, the law reads 0.5% (o'Douls N.A. is 0.5%) or greater can get you ticketed for open container. He also said that even at 0.5%, getting ticketed for drinking a root beer would be highly unlikely and very "situationally dependent" i.e Much more probable if you're acting like a jerk, or they suspect other stuff like drugs, stolen car, etc. He did recommend against driving down the road drinking from an unlabeled brown bottle.

As for O'Douls, it qualifies in Ga. and you would likely get ticketed if you're seen pounding 'em while driving.

david_42 said:

I doubt the soda would be tested unless you BAL was over the limit & you tried to use "It's just root beer." as a defense.

Click to expand...

If you BAC is over the limit, they probably wouldn't even test your beverage them. They would just arrest you for DUI/DWI and forget the open container because of the burden of proof. But they could, and at that point you'd have to argue in court that it wasn't an alcoholic beverage. One thing to note when discussing DUI cases. Most jurisdictions have at least one officer specially trained/certified by the state in recognizing alcohol/drugs, administering field tests, etc. That training is going to go a long way in court when he says that in his opinion you were drinking an alcoholic beverage.

So gnome extract is good??? Any other alternatives? Also, for the Birch beer???? And real Ginger root for the Ginger ale???