Hard Root Beer recipe

[Fuzzymittenbrewing]

I'm curious what your starting gravity?

I'm wondering because I attempted your version as a gallon batch for the added gravity but ended up using the whole pound instead of half! I ended up with about 1.065

I'm going to use nottingham though so I doubt I'll get that low.

Hmm that's odd because mine was 1.068

 

[pkrath84]

Yeah, I'm sure I messed something up somewhere. Oh well, not a big deal. I'll pay closer attention next time I make this. I was probably multitasking a bit too much while I put this together.

 

[pkrath84]

You guys werent kidding about that active fermentation!

I setup a blow-off into a second vessel and it went NUTS! Luckily my wife had the foresight to put the second vessel into a bigger bowl (just in case). That would have been a challenge to clean even for the steam cleaner with how sticky it was!

 

[Fuzzymittenbrewing]

Well I didn't pasturize this batch. The plastic bottle seemed to max out and not need it. I'm pretty confident in my flip top bottles as well, they are fairly thick. Anyway here it is in its delicious 8.4% glory. I used only a tblsp and a half of extract for 2 gallons and may even cut that back next time and definately more lactose to mimick the "float" flavor. Thanks for the recipe Bauerbrewery!

 

[pkrath84]

Looks great! Thanks for letting us know how it came out!

 

[Bauerbrewery1989]

Glad to hear it came out well for you! The great thing about this recipe is its easily tweaked to meet you're taste. It's simple and tasty.

 

[Bauerbrewery1989]

Just poured a glass from a keg of my 3rd batch (first kegging attempt ever). Alittle overcarbed, but it tastes amazing, the head retention is crazy, I feel like I could float a bowling ball on it. Does very well when kegged, going to try to get/make a beer gun, use O2 absorbing caps, and age some of this, see what alittle time will do to the flavor.

 

[pkrath84]

Sounds good! I cant wait to try some of my first batch. Fermentation should be wrapping up shortly!

 

[Brewmex41]

I am going to try this next.
I have a question tho, instead of adding a ton of sugar then stopping fermentation when bottle carbonating, can I add a smaller amount of priming sugar for a specific vol CO2 and let it carbonate that way?

 

[Bauerbrewery1989]

Ever have non-sweetened root beer? Not very tasty. You could definatly try it, I'm not sure it would turn out very well though. You could use non-fermentables like Splenda too I guess, but I'd rather have a bottle blow up in my face then drink that stuff. Personal preference though.

 

[Brewmex41]

Even with the lactose sugar in there?

Would I be better off making a root beer float style stout?

 

[Bauerbrewery1989]

Yeah, the lactose is more for that float flavor, doesn't let a whole lot sweetness. I was going to try making it with crystal malt and honey malt to give the sweetness. Definatly give the root beer stout a shot though, it would be interesting to hear you're results.

 

[Brewmex41]

I was thinking the same thing on the crystal and honey malts. I'll work on a stout recipe separately.

Ok I'll go ahead and save a plastic bottle and give it a squeeze then toss them in the fridge once that one is rock solid. Thanks!

I was thinkin maybe adding Madagascar bourbon vanilla either beans or extract to this. Any thoughts on that?

 

[Bauerbrewery1989]

You would need to leave it in the fermenter longer if using the vanilla beans, but that wouldn't be a bad thing. The thought of adding that slight bourbon flavor sounds really good though!

 

[Fuzzymittenbrewing]

Ever have non-sweetened root beer? Not very tasty. You could definatly try it, I'm not sure it would turn out very well though. You could use non-fermentables like Splenda too I guess, but I'd rather have a bottle blow up in my face then drink that stuff. Personal preference though.

Agreed. I thought about just adding enough to normal prime but it just wouldn't be anywhere sweet enough

 

[Brewmex41]

If anyone's interested, I just ordered 10 Madagascar bourbon vanilla beans off Amazon for $6 with free shipping.

 

[tlfuller27]

I'm new to brewing how & why would you pasteurize the beer
Tim

 

[pkrath84]

When I pasteurize, I take a large stock pot put a grate/riser on the bottom and put all my bottles in, cover with water to the level of the fluid in the bottles at least and bring to 150F for 15 mins to let the contents come to temp. So far, so good. No bottle bombs this summer.

You would do this of you want to prime to carb in bottles and also back sweeten to leave residual sugar (fermentable).

 

[Bauerbrewery1989]

Yeah, what pkrath said.
In the most basic of terms, you're carbonating the beer to the right carbination level, but still have sugar that the yeast can eat, which can over carbonate the beer (it could go boom then). By killing the yeast with heat (pasteurization) there isn't anything to eat the sugar, so you have a carbonated, sweetened, beer. Usually this isn't a problem, since normally most beer isn't supposed to be really sweet, but since root beer needs to be sweet, you could use this process. There's a great post on pasteurization in the cider forum, here's the link if you want more info on it-
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/

 

[pkrath84]

Thats the post I adopted my method from. I just prefer to have my bottle in while I bring the water up to temp, then let them sit 10-15 mins while holding 150*

If you do it like that post you'll be just fine.

 

[DrHops]

For those of you that are kegging this be careful. I've run restaurants for decades and root beer is extremely strong and will flavor the lines that it's run through. I'm not sure how long it takes for the flavor to "stain" the line but I know from experience and talking to several Coke and Pepsi reps that once root beer is run through a soda line nothing else can be run through that line except for root beer.

 

[tlfuller27]

question I'm new to kegging if I want to keg this and i want to force carb this what pressure and for how long?
Tim

 

[tellish33]

I just made this tonight. Its already going nuts. I used the 1 gallon recipe but I made it in a 5 gallon bucket.

Do you think its safe in a 5 gallon bucket or should I still use a blow off tube?

 

[Brewmex41]

When I left for work the blow off tube was bubbling like crazy, but very very small amount of krausen.

 

[davepeds]

BaurBrewery - could you do me a solid?
I'm definitely going to brew this up soon, because I love rootbeer and a hard rootbeer is way cool.
Would you mind posting this recipe as if it were a normal homebrew recipe - ingredients, boil time, OG, FG, yeast: all that? I've read all the way through this tab and have assembled some of it. Seems like there were additions in brown sugar and lactose, and maybe something done differently with vanilla beans.
Also - what is stabilize? I hear people talking about pasteurizing, but is stabilizing the same thing? There aren't instructions for it, so I assume it's something done commonly. Which is equally weird, since I haven't heard of it and have been brewing for a bit now.
Anyway - hoping I can do this!

 

[pkrath84]

Anyone all carb'd up yet? How long did it take?

I'm a few days in... seems a bit slow but I'm patiently waiting

 

[Bauerbrewery1989]

Recipe Type: Extract
Yeast: Nottingham
Batch Size (Gallons): 1
Original Gravity: 1.045
Final Gravity: 1.015
IBU: N/A
Boiling Time (Minutes): 30
Color: Dark
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 7 days 70F
Tasting Notes: Smooth root beer flavor finishing in vanilla and honey.

---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/bottling---
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 bottle.


Stabilizing would be killing the yeast so that additional sugars could be added without the risk of the yeast eating them. Stabilizing could be done with potassium sorbate, and potassium metabisulfate (campden tablet) The reason people are talking about pasteurization is because you could bottle the root beer, let the yeast carbonate it, and then kill the yeast by heat so that you have residual sugars, and also carbonation. Look in the cider forum about "stove top pasteurization"

You could add more sugar in the primary for a higher abv, fuzzymittenbrewery did this with good results.

 

[Brewmex41]

Could someone suggest how many vanilla beans to use and for how long? I have 8 Madagascar bourbon beans and I want to go that route vs using the extract.

 

[jjefrey]

I kegged this last night. Should be ready to drink in a couple days. Smells great.

 

[Bauerbrewery1989]

Brewmex- I would add them to the secondary with add the other secondary ingredients, and let sit for about a week, taste, see if its enough vanilla, and go from there. It's not supposed to be a prominent flavor, more for a smooth aftertaste then anything.