Hard Root Beer recipe

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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.
 
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
 
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?
 
When I left for work the blow off tube was bubbling like crazy, but very very small amount of krausen.
 
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!
 
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 :)
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
This stuff in a float with Breyers Vanilla ice cream is off the charts deliciousness! Truly a float that makes you feel good :ban:

ForumRunner_20130802_001815.jpg
 
So if I'm not kegging this does it sit for two weeks?

I bottles a few days back and it looks like it'll be taking at least a few weeks. Looks like they're getting there though. I opened up my soda bottle tester a bit to check on it and its producing gas.
 
Rdneckbrew- you want to let it carb if you're bottling, and then put it in the fridge to stop/slow fermentation. You could drink it right when its carbed, but I found it tastes better after a few weeks. All the flavors "mellow" with some time.

Fuzzymittenbrewery- that looks amazing! Looks like I'm getting some ice cream after work, haha
 
Fuzzymittenbrewing said:
This stuff in a float with Breyers Vanilla ice cream is off the charts deliciousness! Truly a float that makes you feel good :ban:

That looks pretty awesome. And with the Simpsons on tv even better
 
8/2/13 - sweet. First batch just went into the primary.
My LBHS only had DME in 3# sacks. So 3 gal batch it was. I went ahead and tripled the other ingredients, but might not need to triple the extracts. I'm not sure yet. That's a solid 5-7 days away!
Also, instead of yeast nutrient and energizer I just added 1 pound of old mash. I always save the last 2-3 quarts when I'm doing all grain (fly sparge run off in the end, pretty weak sauce at 1.022). It brought the OG up to 1.062.
Here's hopin!
 
If you make a 3 gal batch do you need to add more than one packet of Yeast? I normally only add 1 packet for 5 gal of Beer but I know this is sweeter.
 
Brewed this up last night but my OG was really high. Anybody know what I could have done wrong? I followed the recipe exactly. The only thing I can think of is maybe to much brown sugar. I'm not sure how accurate my scale is.
 
I popped a bottle the other day and WHOOOOOWEE!! Its strong, but its GOOD! Too bad mine's flat! haha!

I think I killed my yeast when I added my sugars before bottling though. Looks like I'm going to have to pop the tops and sprinkle a little extra yeast. I normally add my hot priming sugar to my 5 gallon batches, but I should have known better (for my 1 gallon batch). I think I'm just going to make a second batch and let these ones sit a total of 6-8 weeks since I have some pretty high octane stuff. If that doesnt work, I'll pop tops and add fresh yeast.

Tastes great though!
 
You could, but that would increase the chance of infection. Personally I'd just get some ice cream, sit back, and drink some floats, wouldn't be as noticeable that its not carbed.
 
You could, but that would increase the chance of infection. Personally I'd just get some ice cream, sit back, and drink some floats, wouldn't be as noticeable that its not carbed.

I was even thinking about transferring a bottle into a PET and using my carb cap! But I like the way you think! :mug:
 
Ok been in primary for 7 days. Awful lite in color and very cloudy I was thinking about putting in secondary to help clear it up any thoughts?
 
If you're using vanilla extract and your gravity is stable you can always cold crash it. Just a suggestion.
 
It'll clear up in a few days. If not, like above, just cold crash.

Mine's still not carb'd although it is pretty high octane. Tastes great though! I'm going to put a few grains of yeast in the bottles when I get home today and pasteurize when my PET bottle gets hard as a rock!

Cheers!
 
Ok thanks guys. I plan on putting in growlers & pet then cold crashing once pet bottle is rock hard. How long do you think it will take for pet bottle to get hard. Hate for it to go boom while im at work lol
 
I will say this about the cloudiness-
Mine never got crystal clear (drank it before it could), but if you don't let it settle enough, I found the root beer extract can cling to the excess particulates and effect the potency of the extract.

pkrath84- let us know how the pasturizing goes, it would be interesting to see if the heat effects flavor at all.
 
Ok thanks guys. I plan on putting in growlers & pet then cold crashing once pet bottle is rock hard. How long do you think it will take for pet bottle to get hard. Hate for it to go boom while im at work lol

All that sugar and in a growler sounds like a dangerous proposition to me. Growlers can't handle carbing pressure.
 
I will say this about the cloudiness-
Mine never got crystal clear (drank it before it could), but if you don't let it settle enough, I found the root beer extract can cling to the excess particulates and effect the potency of the extract.

pkrath84- let us know how the pasturizing goes, it would be interesting to see if the heat effects flavor at all.

In my experience with backsweetened Apfelwein, it kills the sweetness just a TAD. I'd say the difference in flavor (for apfelwein) if equivalent to an additional month of aging as far as change in taste. Does that even make sense? lol

I'll report back on the root beer.
 
I would assume the heat would deteriorate and break down some of the less stable ingredients that time would have done anyway, or aliens, one of the two. (One of my old coworkers i saw today would blame everything on aliens)

Yeah it would be interesting what the results are. I'm trying to make root beer from scratch (herbs) and then will concentrate it to use for the original recipe, with a few changes to the base, so I'm wondering if the heat will do a lot to it. Ill be adding crystal, caremel, and honey malt to make it a partial, see if that gives enough sweetness so pasturizing may not be needed.
 
I would assume the heat would deteriorate and break down some of the less stable ingredients that time would have done anyway, or aliens, one of the two. (One of my old coworkers i saw today would blame everything on aliens)

Yeah it would be interesting what the results are. I'm trying to make root beer from scratch (herbs) and then will concentrate it to use for the original recipe, with a few changes to the base, so I'm wondering if the heat will do a lot to it. Ill be adding crystal, caremel, and honey malt to make it a partial, see if that gives enough sweetness so pasturizing may not be needed.

Check out the recipe by Crazy8. I made his recipe but substituted with fresh sassafras roots. Came out great except for a few tweaks.

Gluck!
 
Cool, thanks, ill have to check it out. The problem I'm having is getting ahold of sassafras. Nobody sells it around here and nobody will special order it. They say its dangerous, but from what I've read you get more carcinogens from an over charred steak. One guy at a natural foods store told me, "dude, we don't sell it because, like, you can make LSD with it, and stuff."
 
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