AA Root Beer (Kegged)

This recipe is great! I substituted sarsaparilla for the sassafras and it is delicious. Thanks for sharing!!!

r2eng said:

Bk2X: are you using the Zatarains now, or something else?

I am always looking for better extracts, so let me know if you find something.

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Sorry for the delay. My last batch I used Watkins but was not very pleased. McCormicks was good but I have yet to use Sarsaparilla or Sassafras in any of my batches. I am going to order some Zatarains today and give it a go. Do you guys think Sarsaparilla or sassafras would help the flavor?

I just got some sprercher root beer extract I'll post how it turns out,

I love both sarsaparilla and sassafras - I think I actually like the sarsaparilla better.

I am very interested in the Sprecher. Is it an extract, or is it a mix? Has anyone tried Gnome?

I used gnome on my first batch without other additives. Pretty tasty, but I like zatarains better.

Zatarains is sold out of their root beer extract so going to look around for a similar deal to what they offer, if not, I will just grab a random extract to run with.

It's a mix comes in a 1 gallon jug, all you do is add 4 gallons of water mix and force carb. It has preservatives in it so you can't bottle carb it

Can only find zatarains in 4 oz bottles, which say for 5 gallons...still use 6 oz??

I've used 4 oz and think it still has a good flavor.

I like bigger flavor... it's cheap enough to try 4oz and make your own decision.

Next time go 6oz, or go 4oz Zatarains and 4oz birch beer. Bam!

awesome!

I have a question regarding the recipe - is the extract not strong enough that you have to simmer/steep additional roots and then add that to the sugar, water and extract? I'm just curious. Or is it that you prefer stronger flavored root beer?

I'm looking at various extracts as well. I have Rainbow Flavors Root Beer extract. It needs a little more sugar to bring it up to where it should be compared to their instructions. Although I don't feel the flavor is as strong as it should be. But I've never used Zatarain's yet. I'd like to try them out soon.

My plans are to make a few larger batches and set up a rootbeer stand for my girls to help run at art festivals and fairs this summer.

The general consensus on the Zatarains batch I did, is that there is too much spice. I bought enough extract to do another batch so going to try without the spices and see how it is. So far the McCormick has gone over the best. I have yet to do one without spices. At some point I would like to try Corn syrup instead of sugar cause some of the response is that it tastes "diet".

Just kegged a similar batch of this with my daughter. No Zatarains here, so we used the regular "old fashioned " extract that every homebrew shop seemed to have. Also, skipped the anise and substituted a half of a vanilla bean diced up into the steeping pan. For comparison sake, we took a little taste of the extract mixture and chilled it in a glass before adding the steeped mixture. It tasted good, but was a little lacking. Did the same with the final product before kegging. All agreed that the extract product PLUS the licorice, sarsaparilla, and vanilla was Much, much better. It tasted great! Can't wait to taste it carbonated!

I made a batch last week with the kids.. not bad.. but when you smell it. It has a very strong extracty smell. Off putting.. I used 6oz as directed. Used sasperilla as my sassafras root sat around to long. Kids like it. But has the nose of something highly processed. Maybe my calculations were off somewhere. I'll definitely make again but maybe mix it up a bit.

Quick question on this recipe if anyone can answer: I want to try this; but I would like to add some molasses to improve head retention (as is discussed in the thread on the soda sub-forum). How should I go about substituting this, for some sugar perhaps?

As has been said above, the cool thing about soda is you can taste it and add more!

Chill a glass, try it and adjust.

sasafras is fine

Im new to this and ive been seeing this word "force carb" alot what exactly is force carbonation and how is it done? im trying to barrel rootbeer but i dont want an alcohol content. is force carbing a way i can do this?

dwolf1203 said:

Im new to this and ive been seeing this word "force carb" alot what exactly is force carbonation and how is it done? im trying to barrel rootbeer but i dont want an alcohol content. is force carbing a way i can do this?

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Force carbing is simply carbing a keg from a co2 bottle. You could easily make a non alcoholic rootbeer this way. I would assume you would just mix the flavor extract with water add to the keg and carbonate with CO2. Usually when using the term "force carbing. " they are referring to setting the regulator to a higher pressure than desired, then shaking the keg to force the co2 into solution faster when after shaking and re-hooking the co2 back up you don't hear gas rush back into the keg then bleed off excess gas reset to serving pressure and enjoy. Personally I usually set it to serving pressure and giving it a week or so to come up to pressure.


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Am i able to force carbonate wooden barrels or would a metal keg be recommended, or can i store the root beer without carbonation and then carbonate after it ages at a later date?

dwolf1203 said:

Am i able to force carbonate wooden barrels or would a metal keg be recommended, or can i store the root beer without carbonation and then carbonate after it ages at a later date?

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You can't' force carbonate in wooded barrels. You can in a stainless keg.

I don't know how long it would "age" at room temperature before it would spoil. Most people store their soda in a fridge.

GilSwillBasementBrews said:

Force carbing is simply carbing a keg from a co2 bottle. You could easily make a non alcoholic rootbeer this way. I would assume you would just mix the flavor extract with water add to the keg and carbonate with CO2. Usually when using the term "force carbing. " they are referring to setting the regulator to a higher pressure than desired, then shaking the keg to force the co2 into solution faster when after shaking and re-hooking the co2 back up you don't hear gas rush back into the keg then bleed off excess gas reset to serving pressure and enjoy. Personally I usually set it to serving pressure and giving it a week or so to come up to pressure.


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Not exactly! "Force carbing" means not using yeast to naturally carbonate the soda, and instead using c02 by forcing it via pressure into the drink. It just means using an external source of c02, not shaking or turning it way up.

Some people do shake and things, to hurry up the process, and that's called "burst carbing".

thank you to everyone who answered my questions, iv'e retained this knowledge and actually alot better understanding of the process now, looks like im gonna be holding onto these barrels til i;m legally allowed to brew alcohol.

dwolf1203 said:

thank you to everyone who answered my questions, iv'e retained this knowledge and actually alot better understanding of the process now, looks like im gonna be holding onto these barrels til i;m legally allowed to brew alcohol.

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FYI he will not be able to post for a year unless he contacts the mod forums to say he is of age. Just a reminder, if you are underage, please don't sign up here. It's the rules.

Or if you do, have the basic common sense to not admit it in your post... :cross:

Yooper said:

Not exactly! "Force carbing" means not using yeast to naturally carbonate the soda, and instead using c02 by forcing it via pressure into the drink. It just means using an external source of c02, not shaking or turning it way up.



Some people do shake and things, to hurry up the process, and that's called "burst carbing".

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Yes. As usual, you are correct. Burst carbing would be as I reffeed to. And yes shaking or no would still be force carbing. I really shouldn't have taken the liberty in stating that shaking was the end all be all of force carbing. I just meant force carbing was using co2 to carbonate the "beer" instead of relying on yeast to do the job. My misrepresentation of facts. ( bows out respectfully)



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