Experimental Beer Grandpa Willies Hard Root Beer

[Vlad_The_Imp_Pale_Aler]

hey there - decided to try this one out tonight! I scaled up to a 5 gal batch (just x5 everything you listed except the yeast) and right now I'm waiting for the wort to cool. had a question on the latter part of the recipe though - you say "before kegging ... 1 cup sugar boiled in 1 cup water", is this for priming or back sweetening? I'm kegging with forced CO2, do I need the (in my case) 5 cups additional sugar?

 

[Vlad_The_Imp_Pale_Aler]

I got ~1.086 OG

since I was doing a 5 gal batch I x5'ed everything: 5# light DME, 1.25# Light Brown Sugar, 1.25# Lactose

 

[akillys]

You don't need priming sugar as the additives would provide enough food for the yeast. Also the amount of sugar the op said to use is not fit priming and is instead to make the root beer sweeter, so go ahead and multiply the op's recipe by 5 and you should be good. If I made it again I would use less honey as it was rather noticeable. Since you are kegging I would use something like Camden tablets or meta-k to prohibit further yeast production.

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[Vlad_The_Imp_Pale_Aler]

Thanks - I picked up some potassium sorbate for stabilizing, also I'll heed your caution on the honey, I'll scale back and keep adding smaller amounts to taste


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[akillys]

No problem, hope all goes well

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[Vlad_The_Imp_Pale_Aler]

So I cold-crashed and then transferred to a secondary and I used 2.5 tsp potassium sorbate and a campden tablet for the 5 gal batch, let that sit for 2 days in the fridge and then added the sugar, vanilla, honey, and root beer extract. I just kegged it the other night so it's still carbonating (forced co2), but today I drew a sample - wow that's good... Tastes just like a REALLY good root beer and even though it's 9.5% (I got a 1.086 OG & 1.012 FG) you can barely tell there's any alcohol. I can already tell this is one dangerous brew

One thing I noticed: perhaps it's the root beer extract that I used (mccormicks - tastes great), but it seems that the beer stratifies with the adjuncts/additions - darker on the bottom, also thicker looking like there's small particulate in solution, doesn't seem to affect taste at all, but I suspect that the top of my keg will be lighter colored and clearer than the bottom once settled...

All-in-all, Delicious!!! 2-thumbs up!! Will make this part of my regular rotation!


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[akillys]

How much honey did you end up using?

 

[Vlad_The_Imp_Pale_Aler]

Well, since I did a 5 gal batch the recipe would have scaled to 27.5 oz wildflower honey (1.7 pounds) - I eyeballed about 1 pound and that tasted good to me, so to scale it back down to a 1 gal batch that would come to 3.2oz wildflower honey per gallon.


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[akillys]

Cool, hope it turned out well

 

[Vlad_The_Imp_Pale_Aler]

As I noted before, some darker components (the "dark matter" ) seemed to settle toward the bottom of the batch I made making the lower part of the keg pour darker and cloudier, but as I suspected, that would clear up once that portion had been drawn from the keg. It took somewhere between 1 and 2 quarts (5gal batch) but sure enough it cleared up and turned a few shades lighter.

"What did I do with those first pours" you ask? That my friend would be a silly question...

Here's a picture of it after it cleared up (I forgot to take a picture before it cleared up; was too busy drinking it):




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[jsinning]

So what was your final recipe? I would like to replicate.

 

[Vlad_The_Imp_Pale_Aler]

Jsinning - my final recipe was the exact same as the op except I scaled to 5gal (just multiply everything x5) and used a little over half the amount of honey. Also I used wyeast 1056 (2 packs).


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[hobnobbrewco]

Hi all - I've got 6 gallons brewing as I type this...the first gallon just completed fermentation and I bottled in 3 2-Liter bottles for natural carbonation. My question is, how long should it take for the bottles to carb naturally and become rock hard so I can place in the refrigerator? I will be checking several times daily but just wondering if this is a 2-3 day process or 5-7?

Thanks!!

 

[Bauerbrewery1989]

I would check in both the morning and night. It all depends on how much yeast is in suspension and how warm it is. I've had it take 2 days, I've had it take 5 days. It all depends.

 

[Cliffnla2000]

You can use plastic soda or water bottles to judge carbonation. When the plastic bottle feels firm it is time to move bottles to fridge

 

[garyj1]

Stupid question, I tried to make this recipe over the weekend for a 1 gallon batch. I used 1 pound of DME and boiled in with the brown sugar and lactose in 4 cups of water for 30 minutes. The problem I had was all the water boiled out before the 30 minutes was up and the DME started to burn. What did I do wrong. Should I use more water? Or maybe a smaller pot? Has anyone had this problem with making a 1 gallon batch? Thanks.

 

[Bauerbrewery1989]

I'd use more water, how hard of a boil was it?

 

[ThreeBeards]

I brewed this the other day. Did a 5 gallon batch. The yeast took off overnight and was vigorous for about a day. After one day it stopped completely. Is it possible it finished that quick, or should I try pitching another packet of yeast on it?

 

[Bauerbrewery1989]

It's possible to ferment quick, but I'd wait for about a week to be sure it's completely fermented. That or take a gravity reading. I never go by how much the airlock moves

 

[sar_dog_1]

Holy crap did this stuff fernent like crazy!!! Cant wait to bottle tommorow! !

 

[sar_dog_1]

I made to recipie except less honey as suggested. It fermentef great @65. I crash cooled and bottled like instructed. I used a pladtic soda bottle to judge carbing ( my fist time) and the rest in bottles. Its been 10 days and zero carb. Delish but very disapointed as it is as flat as all get out.

Anybody know what happened?

I am going to make anouther 1gal batch and hopefully usr some recommendations from thosr of u who have done this successfully. Cheers!!

 

[Skynet]

I crash cooled and bottled like instructed. I used a pladtic soda bottle to judge carbing ( my fist time) and the rest in bottles. Its been 10 days and zero carb.

Sar_dog_1,

Cold crashing will floc the yeast to the bottom of the fermenter and create a yeast cake. This is ideal for Vlad (or anyone kegging) since he is force carbing the beer. If you're bottling then you need some yeast to eat the sugars and make CO2 for the bottles. Crashing it (if you racked correctly) will take out the majority of the yeast. Next batch try not crashing and racking the cloudy fermented beer straight to your bottling bucket with yeast and all.

Let us know how it goes!

 

[Schumed]

looks great...putting this on this on the calendar to try

 

[Frilock]

I'll have to try this when my LBK frees up.

 

[Schumed]

Officially put together a 4lb batch last night....essentially take a lot of sugar...ferment it...back sweeten with more sugar and add some root beer extract until it taste like root beer

 

[dhelegda]

Grandpa Willies Hard Root Beer

---Primary---
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/2 tsp yeast energizer
4 oz brown sugar
4 oz lactose
1 pound light DME
Nottingham Ale Yeast

Boil DME, brown sugar, and lactose with about 4 cups water. Pour in primary. Add nutrient and energizer. Top off. Let cool and pitch yeast. Ferment for 5-7 days. Stabilize (if kegging). Wait another week.

---Before Kegging---
1 cup sugar boiled in 1 cup water
5 1/2 oz wildflower honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp root beer extract (McCormick)

Boil sugar and add to bottling bucket. Then add honey (warm it so its easier to pour) and the extracts. Let cool and add primary. Pour in Keg or bottles.

If bottling, let carb and put in fridge so the yeast doesn't continue to carb and over carbonate bottles

I just brewed this today. What should the FG be. I keg, do you add the honey, vanilla and root beer extract to the keg or do you add it to a secondary?

 

[dhelegda]

Officially put together a 4lb batch last night....essentially take a lot of sugar...ferment it...back sweeten with more sugar and add some root beer extract until it taste like root beer

What was your OG?

 

[jbeerman]

I just brewed 4 gallons of this Thursday night. Got about 4 gallons chilled wort into bucket. OG was 1.080 I topped off another half gallon of water and ended up at final OG of 1.066. Pumped in some pure o2 and pitched hydrated pack of Nottingham. Bubbling away into the blow-off bucket now. Gonna waituntil Wednesday and if og is under 1.02 I will stabilize and cold crash.

 

[Schumed]

Having my first taste...pretty wonderful ...great root beer flavor ...a tad sweet ...I think like 5 ibu of hops might help balance out the sweetness a tad for my palate ...overall a nice beer...my peach float Radler next to it

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1435025059.302549.jpg

 

[Paulthebrewer]

This sounds amazing! Perfect for my wife who doesn't like beer (which works out really well for me!!)

 

[dhelegda]

I'm cold crashing mine tonight, I have been away on vacation for the past 11 days. Then on Friday or Saturday I will step two in the keg and get on CO2 and drink next weekend!

 

[Schumed]

I brought 4 gallons of this to a local brew fest ...it was gone in less than hour ...had lots of comments it was better than any of the commercial hard root beer

 

[dhelegda]

I tried a sample of the batch that I made...it is not carbonated or ready yet but I'm not sure if it'll ever be ready. It tastes like fruity root beer!

 

[jbeerman]

I got mine carbonated and in a keg. I ended up using Zatarans root beer extract. All I really taste is the honey. Will that fade over time?

 

[Shootblank]

You would only stabilize it if you were kegging. The tricky thing with bottling is, you have to know when its carbed just right and then put it in the fridge to stop the yeast from overcarbing the bottles.

How long is to carbonate in the bottles before refrigerating

 

[jzelina]

I am trying this recipe 5 gallon batch, so far, I did not have the lactose so I went without, might add after secondary, I also accidentally add 5 tablespoons of yeast nutrient.. oops . Hope that doesn't hurt it. I also used 11 pounds of German pilsner malt instead of extract, My O.G. came out 1.086. Quick question would pulling off a gallon to boil the sugar and other ingredients, then putting it back hurt it, or should i just us water a dump the gallon to make room. I plan on kegging it, and how necessary is the lactose.

 

[Jwin]

Never made this but I would advise against boiling the root beer and just use water. It takes very little water.
The recipe seems very fermentable and should produce a low fg. The lactose would add back both sweetness and mouthfeel.

 

[jzelina]

thanks JWIN, So to clarify, the root beer extract has not been added yet, I was going to add that and the other ingredients after i mixed them with either water, or the partially fermented beer thus flavoring the beer, and boil to sterilize, So should I do that with water, and add the extract by itself without sterilizing it?

 

[Jwin]

The extract should be sterile I would imagine. Otherwise, bacteria could/would be present.
I don't think that is really possible with extract anyway since many are alcohol based.

 

[jzelina]

good point thanks