sassafras alternative

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user 44350

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hey all i have searched and searched for recipes for root beer and have found lots of them. So many my brain hurts. haha. i have come across this site a few times in my searches and thought it would be a great place to ask.

anyways i was wondering if anyone knew of an sassafras alternative. cause some recipes call for sassafras but i know about the whole ban. If there was an alternative to it, it would make these recipes a whole lot easier to make.

thanks in advance
 
ok cool. i looked into it and barq's root beer uses it. haha cool.

I just dont want to buy the root so i don't have someone knocking at my door. and just dont want to take the risk. So that is why i am trying to find "the" or other replacements. I want to find the best range of ingredients

i read somewhere that wintergreen has replaced the root. is there any truth to this

also what part of Acacia do i use
 
I do know wintergreen is used in some recipes. I don't think sassfras is quite as illegal to purchase as you might have been led to believe. I think if you're selling sassafras there is a restriction on how you can market it if it still contains safrole. Use it at your own risk, personally I think that risk is overblown, but I don't think the feds, or even the locals for that matter, are going to bust down your door if you buy some sassafras.
 
ok cool. well another reason why i am looking too would be if i could pick it up at the store instead of buying it online

thanks
 
You can find sassafras extract at some fancy grocery stores. It will have the safrole removed so no risk of negative health effects. They use it to make tea. I had some at one point but can't seem to find any. I remember when I was a kid my grandfather would go out in the spring and dig up some sassafras roots and boil them in some water to make sassafras tea. I guess the old timers thought it helped "thin the blood" after a cold winter. Now that I think about it, maybe drinking safrole as a young child is what's wrong with me!:confused:
 
well we can run some test to find out. haha.

i am going to be going to a asian market to see i they have some roots. i heard those are good places to check out.

thanks
 
I believe Virgil's rootbeer uses wintergreen. I may be wrong, but I tried one for the first time a few weeks back and seem to recall looking at the label to see if it had sassafras and seeing that it contained wintergreen.
 
Even if a commercial beer has sassafras listed as an ingredient you can be assured that it is modified to remove the safrole since the ban is on selling commercial products containing safrole.

I have several asian markets near me so I was planning to search for roots there as well. And even if they don't make great root beer they are supposed to make great root iykwim ;)

I would love a good recipe using actual roots if someone knows of one.
 
You can still find it at stores that sell tea or herbal supplements. I made a batch of rootbeer using sassafras and found that only after an extended amount of time (several months) that it even began to taste anywhere close to what we know as rootbeer today. I am going to be making some with extracts now instead. Good luck! It's a very unique flavor. I would definitely add some wintergreen to maintain the modern flavor...

Cheers,

Joe
 
i found a great store here in san diego that sells almost every root. (don't quote me) And they had sassafras. They also had a wintergreen oil in there that actually smelled like todays rootbeers. i think that i like the wintergreen in rootbeers today.

i made a batch of stuff with sassafras but i think i screwed up. cause i had only a one gallon pot.

I need to find a recipe that is small and i can make more than once. i have seen some ingredients that call for honey and molasses. does anyone recomend using those or to stay away form those
 
I've used honey in traditional beer with good results. However most of the sweetness ferments off. I would imagine you could use it with good results. I have used molasses in cider (applejack) with fair results. You can't taste the flavors a whole lot in the cider. I think if it had less sugar in it that you definatley could. Also you might be able to just scale down the larger recipes posted and just do a 1 gallon version. Good luck!

Cheers,

Joe
 
well one thing is that i don't really want to put yeast in it. i dont really want to wait for it to be done. i am more of a results now type of person.

oh and btw how do you make your extracts. i have been looking but only find ones for vanilla bean. Does it take a long time? And when you make extracts is the oz measures different?
 
As per the yeast... It doesn't take that long to carbonate (usually 12-24 hours, 72 max) at room temperature.

Never done the extract version (yet). I have a bottle of extract sitting here that I will be using here right quick.

When making my own extract, I just followed a recipe that I found online.
http://www.root-beer.org/recipe2.htm

Cheers,

Joe
 
You can still find it at stores that sell tea or herbal supplements. I made a batch of rootbeer using sassafras and found that only after an extended amount of time (several months) that it even began to taste anywhere close to what we know as rootbeer today. I am going to be making some with extracts now instead. Good luck! It's a very unique flavor. I would definitely add some wintergreen to maintain the modern flavor...

Cheers,

Joe

I'm from the UK originaly, where I grew up from the '70s till about 5 years ago sarsaparilla was part of my regular sodas of choice and still is if I were back there.

IMO it is the other way around. Sarsaparilla (pronounced sasparilla), was in fact the original root beer and as such todays root beer hasn't even begun to taste anywhere close to what we know as root beer originaly made with sassafras. Todays root beer pales in comparison to the real sarsaparilla root beer as some people try to get it to taste as close to the real root beer before the FDA ban, as possible..

For those of you who are lucky enough to be able to obtain sassafras root (not the root bark or leaves) then the addition of liquorice root are the base ingredients, along with sarsaparilla root (which incedentally is tasteless and odorless) for the original root beer, or sarsaparilla as it was known. smell sassafras root and thats what the tea tastes like and what the soda tasted like.....yummy.
 
hey all i have searched and searched for recipes for root beer and have found lots of them. So many my brain hurts. haha. i have come across this site a few times in my searches and thought it would be a great place to ask.

anyways i was wondering if anyone knew of an sassafras alternative. cause some recipes call for sassafras but i know about the whole ban. If there was an alternative to it, it would make these recipes a whole lot easier to make.

thanks in advance

My mother has had a fresh root dug for her sassafras tea every year since she was a child. She will be 80 in November.

They have also proven that consumption of large amounts of alcohol causes some cancers.

Everyone has to make their own decisions in life.
 
I have heard from reliable sources that the replacement for sassafras in some industry extracts is actually camphor, but most of the camphor that I have seen available says not to take internally. I'd guess it's probably added in ppm or ppb amounts.

Also, if you read the ingredients on the McCormick extract available at your local grocery store I believe it says cherry bark extract.

Wintergreen is used in some root beers, but it's not the only component. Like a cola, it's a very complex flavor. If you're trying to recreate it from natural ingredients, then there's more than just one thing that you'll be making it from. Some of the recipes that I've seen include licorice root, dandelion root, sassafras root, anise, raisins, birch twigs, citrus peel, molasses and wintergreen oil.

All three of the roots listed above I've purchased at Good Earth Natural Foods when I lived in UT. They have some liquid extracts available online. In store they have actual roots and herbs including things like hops and elderflower at some of their locations. If you can find a store similar to this in your area, I'm sure that would be the best place to start.
 
I got sassafras and sarsaparilla from my local grocery store. They special ordered it for me from frontier. I use 2-10 drops of wintergreen essential oil since my little wintergreen plant is still growing up.

1/4 ounce wintergreen leaves
1/4 ounce sarsaparilla root or 8-10 drops extract
1/2 ounce sassafras root bark
1-3 inches ginger root, unpeeled and thinly sliced (A heavy inch makes normal rootbeer, and 3 inches makes it a lot like a hybrid with ginger beer, which suits me.)
1/4 ounce licorice root
1/2 ounce burdock root

Boil this in a half gallon of water, then let it sit for a few hours. It smells amazing...

Add this to another half gallon of water, 2 cups raw sugar (the book says a cup of sugar and a cup of molasses, but I use raw sugar in this house) and 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses, 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract, and the yeast varies, but I usually end up using 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ale yeast. Set aside for 24-72 hours, then fridge.


mmmmmm....
 
hey all i have searched and searched for recipes for root beer and have found lots of them. So many my brain hurts. haha. i have come across this site a few times in my searches and thought it would be a great place to ask.

anyways i was wondering if anyone knew of an sassafras alternative. cause some recipes call for sassafras but i know about the whole ban. If there was an alternative to it, it would make these recipes a whole lot easier to make.

thanks in advance
Sassafras contains safrole which is a carcinogen. It increase the risk of cancer and causes liver damage.
 
Sassafras contains safrole which is a carcinogen and increases the risk of cancer. It also causes liver damage. You should not use sassafras. There is a reason why the FDA banned sassafras.
 
Sassafras contains safrole which is a carcinogen and increases the risk of cancer. It also causes liver damage. You should not use sassafras. There is a reason why the FDA banned sassafras.

No doubt, OP has been patiently waiting 14 long years to read this important bit of information. :p
 

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