Experimental Beer Grandpa Willies Hard Root Beer

[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

 

[TheHairyHop]

I brewed this for a 2 gallon batch and I'm not crazy about it. I don't think that there is enough lactose

 

[BransonBrewer]

Can you use more brown sugar instead of honey? All I can find is clover honey and it gave mine a weird flavor. Also I never got any bottles to carb. They have been sitting out for about 10 days.

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

 

[cfox10]

How much liquid is used to 'top off' the primary? I'm doing a 3gal batch in a 5 gallon carboy that doesn't have lines to show liquid level.

This is my first batch of homebrew and realize this was a mistake not figuring this out beforehand.

 

[mort012]

I have made this a few times. It seems that the last few batches have separated and the root beer has settled to the bottom of the bottles. Shake them and they taste great. I was wondering if anyone would have a thought that may help to limit the separation issues?

 

[Jwin]

I have made this a few times. It seems that the last few batches have separated and the root beer has settled to the bottom of the bottles. Shake them and they taste great. I was wondering if anyone would have a thought that may help to limit the separation issues?

Never made this but I've experienced it in kegs
I have a couple bourbon beers I've done that require shaking the keg to keep the bourbon from stratifying to the top. It's just gravity. Can't change it.
Now, you could just pour your bottles into a pint. Would be fine then.

 

[Brittney M]

Well I know this is an older post, but I had just made and bottled this. Completely new to brewing still. After about 8-9 hours of carbing in bottles, they were all actually over carbed. Do I just need to uncap and recap as I did or is there an infection. As I’m not sure what these “gusher” terms are.
For example, I tried open my test bottle and it all quickly rises to top so I rescrew cap. To be sure I tried beer bottle and it all started over pouring the sides.

Any advice greatly appreciated

 

[Brittney M]

Also, I was extremely careful to sanitize everything. The only thing I could think of is when I realized I forgot the vanilla I opened all the bottles. Put in 1/10ths of vanilla in each and recapped

 

[ChristmasAle]

Also, I was extremely careful to sanitize everything. The only thing I could think of is when I realized I forgot the vanilla I opened all the bottles. Put in 1/10ths of vanilla in each and recapped

How did this batch come out? Im interested to hear