Root beer extract in beer?!?!?

[Cold Country Brewery]

I'm looking to add some sweetness to a brown ale. At first I was thinking Maple Syrup. I was told maple syrup is very fermentable and most of the flavors would be consumed. I was going to try a Maple extract, but it's hard to find. I did find from Northern Brewer root beer extract - for making root beer soda.

Would this work? Would it be nasty? I figure Root beer is carmely, sweet - and in a small amount may be a nice addition to beer if I put it in the secondary. Thoughts?

 

[Berock]

pour some rootbeer into a similar beer that you bought at the store. This will give you an idea on what it might taste like.

 

[JJL]

You might want to look at the ingredients in the extract. If there is a lot of sugar in it, it might ferment out as well. Otherwise, what Berock said. Use it sparingly regardless. Probably 1 oz per 5 gal max.

 

[rycov]

i was thinking about this. (i didnt think to deep about it) but i thought it might be good. let us know if it comes out good!

 

[Cold Country Brewery]

i was thinking about this. (i didnt think to deep about it) but i thought it might be good. let us know if it comes out good!

Well I did think deep about it, and if subtle root beer flavors pull through - I think it would be pretty damn good. Root beer beer.

 

[JRems]

Most root beer extracts don't have sugar. It's just the flavor. You would have to experiment it's very potent stuff and easy to overpower lesser flavors

 

[Cold Country Brewery]

So last night I tried messing around with some. My wife had some Stevia drops (sugar free) for making root beer in sparkling water. To make root beer you are to mix 1-2 drops for every ounce of liquid. It was okay with 1 drop for every 3 oz of beer. I tried it in Bells Best Brown Ale.

Jrems, you are correct; even with the little that I put in, it did overpower some of the other flavors. It mellowed out the little bit of hops that are in this beer, and overpowered the toffee and caramel notes. I'm going to try messing around with the real extract (not Stevia) and see if that helps. I'll keep you guys updated.

 

[rycov]

yes. do let us know. it sounds really good. i love beer and root beer, but i am indecisive. why not have both!

 

[Cold Country Brewery]

Most root beer extracts don't have sugar. It's just the flavor.

You are correct; I just got a response back from Northern Brewer. I e-mailed them to ask about their root beer extract, and the ingredients in it. Here's what they e-mailed back:

""Natural and imitation flavors, caramel color, gum acacia, water, citric and ascorbic acid, natural quillaia extract. Preserved with sorbic and sodium benzoate."

It is a 2 oz. extract, so it isn't going to add to your fermentables. When you use it for soda you need to add sugar or honey for fermentables. It has a nice strong root beer smell.
I think it sounds like a fun experiment."

I'll order this and play around with this in a couple different secondary's. I'll let you guys know what I come up with.

 

[Cold Country Brewery]

Update: I got the root beer extract and have been trying it in Bells Best Brown Ale. It doesn't come with a dropper but I found a dropper around the kitchen. Here's what I found
-The root beer extract I found is 2 oz and makes a 4-gallon batch of root beer. It is just the flavor and sugar is added later to the batch.
-3 drops in a 12 oz glass is too much, very high root beer smell - and bitter (lack of sweetener)
-2 drops in a 12 oz glass may be the right amount of root beer extract, nice mellow root beer smell - still a little bitter, but not too bad. Could use some sweetener to offset the mild bitterness.
-I picked up some lactose (non-fermentable sweetener) and mixed .33oz lactose with a small amount of water just enough to dissolve. 2 drops and .33oz lactose is very close to what I was thinking. Nice root beer smell, mild root beer overtones, and the lactose gives it just a bit of sweetness.
-I still want to try 1 drop with less lactose to pull a little more of the brown ale flavors. 2 drops of root beer extract drowns out the flavor just a tad bit more than I want.
-Once I get this dialed in I want to try making a natural root beer tea with sassafras root, vanilla etc. And try that.

I have 5 gallons of brown ale in the primary fermenter. I’m going to pull 1 gallon of it out and try a root beer beer. I’ll let you know what I think after it sits in the secondary for a couple weeks.

 

[Cold Country Brewery]

Update: I took 1 gallon of my double brown ale and moved it to a 1 gallon secondary. I added 22 drops of Root Beer extract and let it sit for 2 weeks; I tried it last night to see if I needed to adjust anything. It smells awesome, you can definitely pull out the root beer smell, it's pleasant - it doesn't smell like a 4 year olds favorite drink. The taste is perfect, right on what I was looking for. Just a subtle root beer flavor. I'll let you know the final results once I bottle it and it's carbed, but for now I think we are on the right path.

If this turns out I'm going to make a root beer tea (sassafras root, vanilla etc) instead of using extract next time.

 

[mghtbgiant]

im glad to see im not the only crazy! when i first started brewing about a year and a half ago i thought itd be awesome to make a root beer beer. so, my first experimental batch was hatched and i decided to base it on a sweet stout. so, i created a recipe for the stout and added the extract to primary.

i think i over-added extract just a smidge. the root beer smell is fantastic. and the taste is just a hair too root beery on the first drink. after that it tastes pretty delicious. next time i will back off on the extract just a hair and add some lactulose at bottling to add a bit of the creamy root beer mouthfeel. however, i gave some to an out-of-town buddy who has homebrew friends at home and he shared it with them and they were pretty big fans of it. so, i could be overly critical given its my first experimental concoction.

overall i was quite happy with it! and, i think ill put it in the same stout recipe next time.. i think the two go very well together!

actually, as i sit here typing, i just got a ber gas/stout faucet setup for my kegerator.. i bet this would be phenomenal through that!!!

 

[Cold Country Brewery]

I just bottled it 5 days ago; I'm excited to try it. I kept with the original 22 drops of root beer extract. I tasted a little of it before bottling. The root beer flavor isn't too strong, but the smell is awesome. I was going to do the lactose, but decided against it. The Brown Ale I brewed was sweeter and smoother than the Bells Best Brown Ale that I was experimenting around with. I'll let you know in a couple weeks how it turns out. I can imagine it would be just as good in a stout.

 

[NorthRiverS]

My next brew will be a stout. After I brew it I plan to mix half with licorice extract in the bottling bucket. Then bottle. The other half I will add root beer extract and bottle. That way I can try two different flavors in one batch. Can't wait.

NRS

 

[Cold Country Brewery]

It turned out good, not great. I think I used the wrong beer for this type of experiment. The brown ale I used was much like a newcastle - kind of boring, thin mouthfeel. The root beer smell was awesome, the taste was...meh. I'd like to try this with a recipe like a bourbon barrel porter. I was hoping for more of a deep rich carmel-y, root beer flavor. I'll try this again with a thicker, creamier beer.