I need help with a Hard Root Beer Recipe

[dhelegda]

This is a recipe that I found, it's called Grandpa Willies Hard Root Beer. The recipe is pretty straight forward. My questions is "Ferment for 5-7 days. Stabilize (if kegging). Wait another week."
What does stabilize mean. Wait another week mean? It says to ferment 5-7 days, do I add the surgery, vanilla and honey to a keg after 5-7 days with the fermented ale from the primary then cold crash...please let me know what your interpretation is here! Thanks!

---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.

 

[muels]

Not sure about stabilize. Wait another week, I'm guessing to carb up or meld flavors? When it's done fermenting I would add the honey mix to the keg with the finished primary. Put it on gas for a week or 2 and serve. Not sure if you're supposed to allow the yeast to eat the honey mixture, may want to kill the yeast first. Let us know how it turns out.


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[muels]

5 gallon batch?


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[dhelegda]

It a 4 gallon batch. I brewed it on Saturday it's in the fermenter now. I am trying to decide if I'm going to leave it there and cold crash it while I'm on vacation or if I going to add it to the keg and put it on gas while I'm away.

 

[Hello]

This is a very common recipe. Stabilize with Kmeta and sorbate. You can bottle, carb up (which will happen fast with all the sugars added after fermentation) and then pasteurize. If you keg you can stabilize with Kmeta and sorbate or you can simply keep cold and drink fast. I no longer work on stabilizing my ciders because I just keg them. If I give any away in bottles, I tell people they must be kept cold.

 

[fusa]

This is what I use for a non alcoholic root beer:

Recipe for 5 gallons:

5 tablespoon sarsaparilla root bark
5 tablespoon sassafras root bark
5 tablespoon birch bark
15 star anise pods
5 vanilla bean
2.5 teaspoon crushed ginger
1 tablespoon spearmint leaf
7.5 cups brown sugar
1.5 cup molasses
5.5 gallons water

boil 30 minutes

 

[dhelegda]

This is a very common recipe. Stabilize with Kmeta and sorbate. You can bottle, carb up (which will happen fast with all the sugars added after fermentation) and then pasteurize. If you keg you can stabilize with Kmeta and sorbate or you can simply keep cold and drink fast. I no longer work on stabilizing my ciders because I just keg them. If I give any away in bottles, I tell people they must be kept cold.

If I cold crash it, get it off the yeast and transfer to a keg and add all the sugars and extracts, and CO2 on it while it's cold...it should be good to go right?

 

[Vamptrump]

It a 4 gallon batch. I brewed it on Saturday it's in the fermenter now. I am trying to decide if I'm going to leave it there and cold crash it while I'm on vacation or if I going to add it to the keg and put it on gas while I'm away.

I assume you increased the ingredients in the recipe posted, because the Grandpa Willies Hard Root Beer recipe is a 1 gallon recipe.

 

[dhelegda]

I assume you increased the ingredients in the recipe posted, because the Grandpa Willies Hard Root Beer recipe is a 1 gallon recipe.

Yes! I multiplied by 4.

 

[dhelegda]

I assume you increased the ingredients in the recipe posted, because the Grandpa Willies Hard Root Beer recipe is a 1 gallon recipe.

Have you brewed this before? Do you keg it of bottle it? How do you go about stabilizing?

 

[Vamptrump]

Have you brewed this before? Do you keg it of bottle it? How do you go about stabilizing?

I have never brewed it before. I saw the recipe the other day and was planning on making a batch and bottling it (I don't keg). As for bottling, I know they talked about putting some in a plastic bottle and when it's hard you stick the bottles in the fridge. I honestly don't know the first thing about stabilizing.

 

[Pyg]

This is a recipe that I found, it's called Grandpa Willies Hard Root Beer. The recipe is pretty straight forward. My questions is "Ferment for 5-7 days. Stabilize (if kegging). Wait another week."
What does stabilize mean. Wait another week mean? It says to ferment 5-7 days, do I add the surgery, vanilla and honey to a keg after 5-7 days with the fermented ale from the primary then cold crash...please let me know what your interpretation is here! Thanks!

---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.

I was going to give this recipe a try as well, but I would bottle.
Is the yeast nutrient/energizer necessary? Could I get by with out it?

The only other recipe I could find for hard rootbeer was below.
But I dont know if that one would be any better?

2 gallon
1.5 lb 46 % Light Dry Extract Any Boil
1.0 lb 30 % Molasses Any Boil
0.5 lb 15 % Caramel Malt 120L Briess Steep
0.25 lb 7 % Carapils® Malt Briess Steep

0.25 lb 5 % Lactose (Milk Sugar)

Safale S-04 Fermentis S-04

2.0 tbs Rootbeer Extract 0.0 days Bottle
3.0 tsp Whole Cloves 10.0 min Boil
2.0 oz Sassafras Root Bark 10.0 min Boil
2.0 oz Wintergreen 10.0 min Boil

All herbs will be steeped for 1/2 hour prior to boiling in 1/2 gallon hot water and then removed prior to the boil.

Added 2 cups of splenda at bottling with 1oz root beer concentrate

 

[Aonghus]

I have never brewed it before. I saw the recipe the other day and was planning on making a batch and bottling it (I don't keg). As for bottling, I know they talked about putting some in a plastic bottle and when it's hard you stick the bottles in the fridge. I honestly don't know the first thing about stabilizing.

Dhelegda,
Check the post by "Hello" he or she answered your question; you stabilize with potassium metabisulfite and sorbate.

 

[geejay]

This is what I use for a non alcoholic root beer:

Recipe for 5 gallons:

5 tablespoon sarsaparilla root bark
5 tablespoon sassafras root bark
5 tablespoon birch bark
15 star anise pods
5 vanilla bean
2.5 teaspoon crushed ginger
1 tablespoon spearmint leaf
7.5 cups brown sugar
1.5 cup molasses
5.5 gallons water

boil 30 minutes

Real rootbeer is the best.

My root beer currently on tap is:
sassafras
burdock
licorice
Aralia racemosa
Devil's Club
Eleuthero
yellow dock

I'm out west so most of the traditional root beer ingredients are hard to find (sassafras, sarsaparilla, wintergreen, birch).
One of these days I'll make a hard version of root beer.

 

[Pyg]

This is a recipe that I found, it's called Grandpa Willies Hard Root Beer. The recipe is pretty straight forward. My questions is "Ferment for 5-7 days. Stabilize (if kegging). Wait another week."
What does stabilize mean. Wait another week mean? It says to ferment 5-7 days, do I add the surgery, vanilla and honey to a keg after 5-7 days with the fermented ale from the primary then cold crash...please let me know what your interpretation is here! Thanks!

---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.

Is that 1 cup of table sugar or priming sugar before bottling?

UPDATE---- I figured it out!

But now I am curious if the cup of sugar, which will act as prime sugar and honey and rootbeer extract will both ferment or just really make it sweet