RB from scratch ?

[BrewTech117]

Ok so im wanting to brew something my buddy's down at AA can enjoy lol. (not serious but i do have a lot of non drinking Buddy) I'm thinking im wanting to make a old fashioned Root beer and here is what i came up with after reading many recipes

Hope to make into a 5 gallon batch (don't know how much of each ill use at this point)

Bottled Water (my water isn't so good)
Anise
Sarsaparilla
Nutmeg
Vanilla Extract
Vanilla Beans
Brown sugar
Honey (local bee farmers)
Sassafras
and to give it a Nevada taste
(and im still pondering this)
Juniper Berries and Russian olive (berries?) the Russian Olive berries i was thinking of roasting a bit on the grill to bring out a smoked flavor.

And of course Champagne Yeast was thinking WLP-715? (unless someone recommends different)

Now i am trying to decide how i am going to .... ferment? this stuff - DO you guys recommend just using a 5 gallon bucket with lid or would my carboy with a Solid stopper be better to get good carbonation

Im going over some recipees I found to see how much of each I should use
When it comes to the R.O. and the Juniper im not sure how much I will need. but both grow in my front yard here in the high desert of Nevada.

What do yall recommend / think of it?

 

[BrewTech117]

Forgot to ask for a 5 gallon batch - should I pitch the entire tube of yeast?

 

[MrFoodScientist]

For root beer or soda in general, usually you just want to ferment it in the bottle. That way you don't have any steps in your process to lose pressure and consequently lose carbonation. The more CO2 you can retain from fermentation, the lower your alcohol content will be for your desired carbonation level.
Obviously this leads to the high likelihood of bottle bombs, so you will want to keep that in mind. Unless you have A LOT of teetotaler friends that you want to serve root beer to within a short period of time, you may want to consider either making a smaller batch or switching to force carbonation.

I like your idea for adding distinct NV flavor, though I'm not familiar enough with either of those berries to offer any sort of advice. That may be another reason for smaller batches to allow you some experimentation to see what you do an don't like. I have a recipe that uses smoked malt in a root beer that definitely gives the recipe an interesting character, but the smoke is not welcome by all, so I'd experiment with the grilled berries in a small batch first.

My recommendations would be to keep the anise and nutmeg low unless you want it to drift towards tasting like a cola. Sarsaparilla, Sassafras, brown sugar and vanilla are your main flavor contributors. I'd recommend 1/2 to 2 oz per gallon of each of the roots. For vanilla, flavor comes out of the beans better in alcohol than in hot water, so I'd opt for extract over beans every time. Using both is a bit superfluous.

Good luck to you, let us know how it turns out!

 

[aruzinsky]

My recommendations would be to keep the anise and nutmeg low unless you want it to drift towards tasting like a cola.

There is no anise in cola. Anise is an important component of traditional root beer flavor. Note the relative amounts of anise in the recipes that I posted at https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f95/i-need-rootbeer-recipe-supplier-362079/index6.html . In particular, I tasted the one made from equal parts sassafras oil, wintergreen oil and anise oil and it tasted better than any modern commercial root beer. But, even in those proportions, only sassafras can be identified as a component from the flavor of that root beer, alone. It may be better to blend those ingredients in proportions such that no ingredient can be identified from flavor alone because that would define a traditional generic root beer flavor. Then, other ingredients can be added added for character, i.e., so brand X doesn't taste like brand Y, but other components do not make this recipe taste more like traditional root beer.

I have observed that vanilla is only important in root beer recipes that lack sassafras, e.g., every modern commercial root beer, because you can barely notice a vanilla flavor against a background of safrole. That said, if the sassafras bark that is used is not fresh, you may not have enough safrole and vanilla may be important. In any case, using the finest vanilla is a complete waste of money because food grade vanillin will work just as well. It can be bought at http://www.supermarketitaly.com/castella-vanillin-artificial-flavoring-14g/ .

Juniper berries taste like pine and it is one of the ingredients used to give root beer character. What, you never chewed a needle from a Xmas tree?

 

[MrFoodScientist]

There is no anise in cola. Anise is an important component of traditional root beer flavor.


What, you never chewed a needle from a Xmas tree?

aruzinsky is right, anise is not typically found in cola. I do put anise in my cola recipes. Maybe I shouldn't, but I think it fits in fairly well.

What I should have said is keep the nutmeg low unless you want it to taste more like cola. Keep the anise low unless you want it to taste more like black licorice.

And no, I've never chewed a needle from a Christmas tree. I do have a recipe for spruce beer, though. Does that count?

 

[aruzinsky]

And no, I've never chewed a needle from a Christmas tree. I do have a recipe for spruce beer, though. Does that count?

No, the main flavor chemical in pine or juniper berries is alpha-pinene whereas the main flavor chemical in spruce is alpha-bornyl acetate and the two taste distinctly different. Personally, I find the flavor of alpha-bornyl acetate to be absolutely awful. But, juniper berries are great for seasoning pastrami which I really love.

 

[BrewTech117]

Sorry I have not got back to yall on this - Still tweaking the recipe - Was hoping to brew a large amount so i can supply our Shop with soft drinks but you may be right, ill do a small test batch until i get this right. Im in the process of a move so all i can do is work on paper and computer until i get everything settled in than this will move to the brew lab.

I will stay small on the nutmeg due to the Russian Olive is supposed to aslo have a "tangy nutmeg flavor to it" Hince why i wanted to Roast them and make it a bit more smokey than tangy. (I will give this a try on its own soon as i get the oven moved in lol)

Im gona try a few ways but first i want to pick enough, and try covering in an oil and baking them in the broiler of the oven for 10-15 min and see how it comes out - I may skip this if it doesnt work how i want it to.

 

[aruzinsky]

... supply our Shop with soft drinks ....

I thought that you knew that it is illegal to sell root beer made with sassafras that contains safrole. Safrole was banned from food by the FDA in 1960 because it is a suspected carcinogen. Otherwise, what you make to drink for yourself is nobody's business but your own and that is why I didn't mention it before. If you intend to sell your root beer, the best solution to this problem is to replace both anise and sassafras with food grade dihydroanethol, around 4 ppm in the finished product.

 

[BrewTech117]

I thought that you knew that it is illegal to sell root beer made with sassafras that contains safrole. Safrole was banned from food by the FDA in 1960 because it is a suspected carcinogen. Otherwise, what you make to drink for yourself is nobody's business but your own and that is why I didn't mention it before. If you intend to sell your root beer, the best solution to this problem is to replace both anise and sassafras with food grade dihydroanethol, around 4 ppm in the finished product.

No they wont be for sale - They will be for free just for the guys in our shop - Usually they give me donations for stuff they like its just a 8 man outfit so its not like its huge - if i ever did try to sell it i would change it up a bit - and i do appreciate you letting me know this - i had heard about some of the legality of making root beer for sale but don't understand this one.

 

[fatcop]

Wait, is there something wrong with anise? True anise or anise stars? Please don't use sarsaparilla, I tried it as a substitute for sassafras on my attempt at rb from scratch, yick. I have found sassafras at around $14 a quarter pound. Ill subscribe to this please keep updating as your plan progresses.

 

[aruzinsky]

Wait, is there something wrong with anise? True anise or anise stars? Please don't use sarsaparilla, I tried it as a substitute for sassafras on my attempt at rb from scratch, yick. I have found sassafras at around $14 a quarter pound. Ill subscribe to this please keep updating as your plan progresses.

There is nothing wrong with anise. I only mentioned "anise" because dihydroanethol is a flavor substitute for a combination of anise and sassafras. If you kept the anise and just replaced sassafras with dihydroanethol, the resulting root beer would taste too much like anise.

There isn't much difference in flavor between anise and star anise. For a greater flavor difference, try replacing anise with fennel seed oil or sweet basil oil.