Hi there!
I'm going be making a very early traditional root beer based on these ingredients which took a few months to gather but might need some tips on how to proportion some of these
according to wikipedia and some other vintage recipes so far here is what I've gathered to work with: different types of cinnamon, allspice, birch bark, cloves, fennel seed, coriander seed, juniper berries, ginger root, wintergreen leaves and berries, hops, burdock root, dandelion root, spikenard root, pipsissewa, guaiacum wood chips, sarsaparilla root (I have indian, mexican and jamaican but usually use the indian cause it just tastes best IMO), wild cherry bark, yellow dock root, prickly ash bark, sassafras root, marshmallow root, star anise pods, green anise seed, vanilla extract instead of beans, dog grass root, and licorice root (I think this is all based on one of the first Hires recipes cause that's 27 ingredients .. I managed to find everything listed on wikipedia except for something called spicewood or spicebush.... so I think I'll just substitute that with extra allspice and cloves... I also have cinchona bark, spruce tips and grains of paradise as optional ingredients...
anyways I've done a few batches before with usually 1 lire of water to make syrup with sassafras being at the front with usually portioned like this
sassafras root - 20g
fresh ginger root - 35g
wintergreen leaf - 14g
sarsaparilla, licorice, marshmallow, dandelion, burdock roots - 10g
cinnamon - 5g
birch or cherry barks - 7g
juniper berries - eyeballed (about half a handful)
star anise - 1 pod
3 cloves
fennel, anise, coriander seed - 1/4 tsp
start with the ginger, cloves, cinnamon, seeds and star anise is cold water and bring to a boil for 3 minutes then add everything else and remove from heat and let steep for 15-20 minutes
then re heat with pinch of salt and 2 cups of demerera sugar and 1 tbsp of vanilla at the end (sometimes I'll reuse the wort with another L of water)
and that pretty much makes a fool proof killer root beer! but that's all I've ever worked with and everything else (the hops, spikenard, pipsissewa, guaiacum, yellow dock, prickly ash, dog grass root, cinchona, grains-o-paraidso) those are totally new to me and some of them were pretty expensive and tough to find so I kinda don't wanna really do too many experiments with them without at least getting someones knowledge about how to maybe portion some of these things to make them work .... and how would you portion them with 1L of water??? with this much ingredients I would likely need to use 2L of water to start? hmmmmm ....
any suggestions??
thanks for reading
I'm going be making a very early traditional root beer based on these ingredients which took a few months to gather but might need some tips on how to proportion some of these
according to wikipedia and some other vintage recipes so far here is what I've gathered to work with: different types of cinnamon, allspice, birch bark, cloves, fennel seed, coriander seed, juniper berries, ginger root, wintergreen leaves and berries, hops, burdock root, dandelion root, spikenard root, pipsissewa, guaiacum wood chips, sarsaparilla root (I have indian, mexican and jamaican but usually use the indian cause it just tastes best IMO), wild cherry bark, yellow dock root, prickly ash bark, sassafras root, marshmallow root, star anise pods, green anise seed, vanilla extract instead of beans, dog grass root, and licorice root (I think this is all based on one of the first Hires recipes cause that's 27 ingredients .. I managed to find everything listed on wikipedia except for something called spicewood or spicebush.... so I think I'll just substitute that with extra allspice and cloves... I also have cinchona bark, spruce tips and grains of paradise as optional ingredients...
anyways I've done a few batches before with usually 1 lire of water to make syrup with sassafras being at the front with usually portioned like this
sassafras root - 20g
fresh ginger root - 35g
wintergreen leaf - 14g
sarsaparilla, licorice, marshmallow, dandelion, burdock roots - 10g
cinnamon - 5g
birch or cherry barks - 7g
juniper berries - eyeballed (about half a handful)
star anise - 1 pod
3 cloves
fennel, anise, coriander seed - 1/4 tsp
start with the ginger, cloves, cinnamon, seeds and star anise is cold water and bring to a boil for 3 minutes then add everything else and remove from heat and let steep for 15-20 minutes
then re heat with pinch of salt and 2 cups of demerera sugar and 1 tbsp of vanilla at the end (sometimes I'll reuse the wort with another L of water)
and that pretty much makes a fool proof killer root beer! but that's all I've ever worked with and everything else (the hops, spikenard, pipsissewa, guaiacum, yellow dock, prickly ash, dog grass root, cinchona, grains-o-paraidso) those are totally new to me and some of them were pretty expensive and tough to find so I kinda don't wanna really do too many experiments with them without at least getting someones knowledge about how to maybe portion some of these things to make them work .... and how would you portion them with 1L of water??? with this much ingredients I would likely need to use 2L of water to start? hmmmmm ....
any suggestions??
thanks for reading
Best I can describe it's like a cross between root beer and Pepsi with a bold zinging punch of something! It's actually good! would probably be considered even better back in the 1800's but even for today it's pretty good for today standards but I don't think kids today would dig it too much but adults would for sure! With that being said, this is a root beer that will put hair on your chest! even if you're a lady! ...... weird enough apparently pipsissewa is also an ingredient in Pepsi!
