AA Root Beer (Kegged)

[Bk2X]

I brewed this up last thurs and kegged at midnight. Saturday at 3 pm was 39 hours at 30 psi then I dropped to 10 psi. Just tasted and the fluid is still flat, is that normal? What kind of time frame might it take to be drinkable?

 

[r2eng]

I think my force carb was almost 52 hours at 30psi... Keep the gas on!

 

[Rigger103]

When you mention sassafras root, are you referring to using an actual root? If so, I thought sassafras root was determined to be toxic long ago.

It is supposed to cause cancer but my Grandmother had sasafrass tea every day of her long life..........she died at 89. I think there is alot worse things that you can consume. I have sasafrass trees on my farm and I occasionally dig out roots and make tea on the stove.

 

[Bk2X]

I have done this recipe 2 times except I havent had access to Zatarains. The first time I used McCormicks which was OK in my opinion but all my friends and family liked it quite a bit and the 2nd time I used Watkins which was not as good as the first and the color was more tan than dark brown. I also added 1.5oz of pure vanilla extract to the 2nd batch. Think I am going to just have to order Zatarains cause I cannot find locally. I do like the vanilla addition. Any other extracts I should try?

 

[r2eng]

Rainbow and Gnome are OK, too.

I think I ordered from Zatarains, direct: Root Beer Extract

 

[Alucard1983]

I've made sweet bottled root beer before. what I did I got a 5% alcohol in the root beer then what I did was back sweetened it using a artificial sweetner like Splenda(it don't ferment)to the right sweetness. Then priming my batch with 2/3 cup of corn sugar and bottled. It never blew and I had a hard rootbeer.

The splenda thing don't work with kegging it, it just sinks to the bottom and turns sour.

 

[stompbox]

How long does soda last kegged?

 

[Bk2X]

Mine was still great tasting nearly a month later. 2nd batch of this got drank on new years eve entirely.

 

[r2eng]

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.

 

[WhoDey78]

I found the zatarains extract on the zatarains web site for 2.00/4 oz bottle; 1.66 for 12 or more.

Is the sassafras root 2 oz fresh or dried?

 

[WhoDey78]

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

 

[Bk2X]

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.

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?

 

[zangung]

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

 

[r2eng]

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?

 

[WhoDey78]

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

 

[Bk2X]

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.

 

[zangung]

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

 

[zangung]

 

[natureboy68]

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

 

[WhoDey78]

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

 

[r2eng]

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!

 

[Kuhndog]

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.

 

[Bk2X]

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".

 

[Crashola]

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!

 

[borto1990]

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.

 

[FatBaldBeerGuy]

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?

 

[r2eng]

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.

 

[Hoptimistic]

sasafras is fine

 

[dwolf1203]

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?

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

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?

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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