Root Beer Beer?

[BigKahuna]

What would happen if I made beer, with light DME, and no hopps, when ready to bottle, add enough sugar or honey to sweeten, and some root beer extract?
* I am affraid that I'd make bottle bombs if not done properly. I don't want to stabilize, cause we're looking for carbonation here.
* I know for sure that a "Dry" not sweet Root beer is NOT good, and for sure not what I am looking to make.

The other thing I'm looking for is the mouth feel. Home mad soda always feels a bit watery. I want the nice thick rich texture.

 

[Chriso]

In short, it doesn't work.

After all, when you want to carbonate your beer, you add sugar. It doesn't taste sweeter, though, because the sugar is consumed by the yeast in order to produce CO2.

The only way to do it would be to kill the yeast (Campden or something else, sorry I can't remember - potassium sorbate or something?), then keg it and force carb it.

I don't know how to go about what you're looking for.... maybe start back at the top of your process, and instead think of a beer-flavored root beer.... "brew" it like normal, and use some Maltodextrine and maybe some DME in it to give it the mouthfeel you're looking for, but keep it root-beer in nature?

 

[BigKahuna]

Well, I'm going to pout about it, but you're right. Hard, sweet Root Beer isn't exactly an afternoon chore...especially since I don't force carbonate.
I will give the next batch a shot of DME for some mouth feel and see what happens.
Thanks for the input...even if it isn't what I wanted to hear.

 

[gaffrig24]

I just kegged my first batch of rootbeer and it's pretty thin. I read a recipe that called for 2tbs of maltodextrin per gallon to give it a good mouthfeel. If I get some before the keg is empty I'll add it and see what happens. If I can't make it better than the first batch it may be my last. My kid likes it though.

Keith

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

What if you steeped some carapils for mouthfeel and made root beer with that? I'm not talking about making an alcoholic drink, just using the carapils to add body to the root beer...

 

[david_42]

MD for mouth feel and unfermentable sweeteners, plus just enough cane sugar for carbonation. It's a tough balance. I've tried it a couple times by using birch extract plus lactose in a Mild (IBU ~10). Moderately successful by making the adjustments after clearing, but before kegging.