Old School Root Beer

I'm really excited about this one.

For 6 Gallons;

6.6 pounds Light Dry Extract
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
8.0 oz Chocolate Malt
8.0 oz Oats, Flaked
3.0 oz Roasted Barley

1oz Hallertau Hops (½ bittering, ½ finishing)

At beginning of boil -
4 oz Burdock Root
4 oz Roasted Dandelion Root
½ oz hops

At 30 minutes -
8oz Sarsaparilla Root
2 Sticks Cinnamon
2oz Licorice Root


At 40 minutes -
8oz Sassafras Root bark
4oz Cherry Tree Bark

End of Boil
1 tsp. Nutmeg
½ oz hops

Secondary:
2 Vanilla Beans
2oz Wintergreen?


Got it all ordered, now I just wait....
In the meantime, any thoughts?

Where did you find the ingredients? I really think I want to give this a try. I have always wanted an adult root beer as it is my favorite pop.

I used two sources:

http://www.pacificbotanicals.com/

http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/

They both have extensive catalogs of high quality plant products.

I'll be brewing sometime next week - October 7th or 8th, and I'll keep updating as I proceed. I should mention that this beer is highly experimental. You can see what I'm shooting for, but I'm pretty much flying blind here in terms of the proportions of the ingredients and the boil times and everything. In other words, you might want to let me see if this works before you go out sassafras shopping.

LOL I have a few brews before this one would be up. I am sure this will end up being something great even if some tweaking needs to be done. I mean people are able to make good beer with pumpkin pie spice I am sure this will turn out at least as good as that.

I would love to hear what you think of the finished product

Well, I brewed it up today, almost exactly like the recipe. It's was an amazing array of aromas, and a lively boil, with hot breaks every time I added more herbs. I filtered the wort through a colander, and then a funnel filter, and it's still really cloudy.
OG=1.051
The hydrometer sample tasted impossibly bitter. I'm afraid I blew it. Maybe next time I'll use like 1/2 the herbs. Or boil them for less time.
In the meantime, I'm holding out hope that the magic of fermentation (along with a late addition of vanilla bourbon) will smooth out any rough edges. I'll keep you posted.

Coprinus said:

I filtered the wort through a colander, and then a funnel filter, and it's still really cloudy.

Click to expand...

Hah, yeah, it is going to take a LOT to clear that one up, if it is even possible. I bought a lot of these same things a few years ago from MountainRoseHerbs (before I got heavy into brewing a few months ago and found that I'm doing quite well at it now), and basically made a large batch of sweetened Satan's diarrhea. I dumped it.

I still have the things around and brew myself up a cup of "witch's liver tea" every few weeks with varying amounts of: sarsparilla, burdock root, yellow dock root, peppermint (or spearmint), wild cherry bark, hops (lol, who knows what these are, exactly), licorice root, and cinnamon. Took many batches before I was able to down a whole liter of this stuff. I left half a cup out for a few days on accident once, came back, and it looked and smelled just like before. Not even wild yeasties or bacteria want in on that action.

Anyway, I'm sure it'll be at least drinkable, since it at least has the beer background as a base. Report back when you bite into one!

Eigenmusic said:

a large batch of sweetened Satan's diarrhea. I dumped it.

Click to expand...

Sounds like Satan dumped it too!

:rockin:

Next day, and I've got about an inch and a half of krausen, and a happily bubbling airlock. The aroma floating out of the airlock is amazing. If it doesn't taste good, at least it'll smell great!

Transfered into a 5 gallon today, and had the opportunity to taste. I'm quite pleased and surprised. The awful bitterness has mostly subsided, leaving a pleasant tannic bite. There is a wonderful complexity, with a distinctive "rooty" flavor. The licorice and cinnamon are showing more than I expected them to, but not in an unpleasant way. I look forward to trying it cold and bubbly.
The plan is three weeks in the secondary, then pre-bottling addition of vanilla bean infused bourbon. I'll let you know!

Glad it is calming down, I bet it ends up tasty.

I bottled today, earlier than I had scheduled, but I had a hunch that it was time.

The beer is dirt-brown, with woodsy, exotic fragrances lifting off of a slightly oily surface. The bourbon comes through as an afterthought,with only a hint of vanilla.

The palate is very warm, spicy, and complex. The liquorice flavor that dominated when I transfered is now mingling well with a centered bitterness and the sweetness offered by the bourbon. The other flavors are there, too - even the cherry bark!

The beer finishes with a wonderful back-of-the-throat warmth that lingers for about a minute.

I can't wait to enjoy one of these in the dead of winter.

I'm so pleased right now, that all I can think of is how I can adjust the recipe for the next batch. If this was the 18th century, I'd be such a local hero for brewing this!



Sorry for boasting, I'm just really psyched!

Sounds like an awesome idea for a recipe. Kudos!

Well, I finally had one chilled and fully carbonated.




The color is brown with a touch of clay red. It's go a beautiful creamy head.



The beer has a bracing bitterness with a cool backdrop of spice and earth. I want it a bit maltier, I think. Also, I wish the vanilla was more present. It's a challenging, but overall pleasant drink, that has the additional aspect of being a reflection of an ancient style of brew.
I'm already planning the next batch. I'm thinking of basing it on an imperial stout, with later additions of most of the herbal ingredients, to hopefully increase their aromatic aspects, and a bit of lactose to counterbalance the bitterness.

Did you add the wintergreen in secondary? I noticed you had a question mark next to it on the original recipe, and I'm just wondering if you went with it.

I wonder if you consulted any root beer recipe books, like Cresswell's "Homemade Root Beer", or Renfrow's "A Sip Through Time"?

This sounds delicious. I'm quite interested!

Nope, I skipped the wintergreen. I wanted to avoid it as it's used as a substitute for sassafras in modern root beers. I figured I'd only use it as a last resort.
I haven't read either of those books, but thanks for the links! I'll definitely be getting at least one of those. I really based my recipe on scattered data on the internet, and on my knowledge of the different herbs as teas.