Not Your Father's Root Beer Clone

[rigger7]

Does anyone have a recipe for this?

 

[milldoggy]

Recent article theories this is made like mikes hard lemonade, a neutral grain spirit is made then blended with stuff to make it.

 

[kurtisiconburns]

Okay so at the request of my wife for a beer she could enjoy as she doesn't like the taste of beer I stumbled onto not your father's root beer. Gave her a bottle and told her to try it with an open mind..... she liked it and I got the go ahead to try to make this stuff.... these are the things I have done so far.... Coopers wheat beer extract was my base. I added 2lbs of brown sugar a 2oz bottle of vanilla extract 4lbs of White sugar and half a bottle of maple syrup brought everything to a boil and added it to my fermenter. Let it cool to about 70 degrees and pitched in the yeast that came with the cooper's extract. ... I'll let it ferment for 3 weeks or so... the plan is to add root beer extract to my bottling bucket and maybe some more vanilla if it's needed when I bottle it.... 2 weeks of bottle conditioning and hopefully I'll have something we can enjoy together. ... I'll keep you posted on how its going once I'm done...

 

[Michigan_Wolfman]

Okay so at the request of my wife for a beer she could enjoy as she doesn't like the taste of beer I stumbled onto not your father's root beer. Gave her a bottle and told her to try it with an open mind..... she liked it and I got the go ahead to try to make this stuff.... these are the things I have done so far.... Coopers wheat beer extract was my base. I added 2lbs of brown sugar a 2oz bottle of vanilla extract 4lbs of White sugar and half a bottle of maple syrup brought everything to a boil and added it to my fermenter. Let it cool to about 70 degrees and pitched in the yeast that came with the cooper's extract. ... I'll let it ferment for 3 weeks or so... the plan is to add root beer extract to my bottling bucket and maybe some more vanilla if it's needed when I bottle it.... 2 weeks of bottle conditioning and hopefully I'll have something we can enjoy together. ... I'll keep you posted on how its going once I'm done...

Sounds like an interesting experiment.

 

[brewtime907]

How did your experiment turn out?

 

[Brewernaut51]

I tried doing a hard root beer. Didn't really try and clone anything in specific though. Here's the recipe I used:

9lb Amber LME
1oz Tetnaang 2.4AAU 60m
1oz Tetnaang 2.4AAU 30m
2 oz dried sassafras root 5m
1/4oz dried wintergreen 5m
4 star anise 5m
1 vanilla bean cut open and scraped 5m
5 cinnamon sticks 5m
Nottingham yeast fermented 2 weeks at 66°
Ozark Homebrewed Rootbeer Extract (forgot the amt but it was meant for 4 gal of root beer) added at kegging.
4 cups of light brown sugar added at kegging (about a pound and a half)

I figured the malt bill wasn't a huge deal but I wanted some residual sweetness so I went with Amber. The OG was 1.066 and it finished at 1.22 which put it right around 6%abv. Not Your Father's is 5.9% and Coney Island is 5.8 so I figured that was close enough for me.

I used Notty because it's fairly clean and easy to use.

The spices were from a BYO soda recipe for a gallon and the RB extract was for 4 gal. I added the cinnamon because I liked cinnamon in root beers I've made before. I figured doing the spices for one gallon's worth would let me add a little of my own flare without forcing me to buy the spices for 5 gal of root beer. That'd get expensive.

Back sweetened with brown sugar. I'm kegging it so no worry about bottle bombs. There's lots of info on the hard cider forum about bottling after back sweetening if anyone else wants to try this.

I just kegged it yesterday so it'll be a few days before I try the final product. Will try to remember to update.

 

[Brewernaut51]

OK so I tried a little bit of my rootbeer and here's my thoughts.

It's still a tad under carbonated for a root beer but it's close.

I'm really on the fence about the sweetness. It's sweet enough for me but not as sweet as a root beer should be which means it won't be sweet enough for SWMBO and anyone else who might drink it. I may add another couple cups of brown sugar.

The flavoring/spicing is good although the anise might be a bit strong and it could probably use more vanilla.

I'm not sure going all malt was a great idea because the body seems a little too thick. I think next time I'd drop 3lb of the LME and add 2 lb of honey or brown sugar to the wort.

Its color is a little light. Not sure if I want to use malt to darken it next time or maybe try molasses.

 

[Brewernaut51]

Yup, SWMBO confirmed it, it does need to be sweeter. Will add another half pound of brown sugar and see.

 

[Psylocide]

Pour a glass of root beer, add a shot of vodka.

A little more involved than most recipes, but is pretty close.

 

[Brewernaut51]

Pour a glass of root beer, add a shot of vodka.

A little more involved than most recipes, but is pretty close.

Eh, same could be said about anything we homebrew. Just buy it. That's not really why we homebrew is it?

 

[RedBeard08]

did you ever give this a second brew with your changes?