Root Beer Recipe #3 - "CHOW"

This recipe is inspired from the one here. Their recipe is for a much smaller amount than I will make. Also, they are using sassafras which I'm not sure if I will use at this time; I'll try to make up for it by using extract and wintergreen.

My recipe for a 5 gallon batch is:

• 2 vanilla beans (split lengthwise)
  
• 1/2 oz licorice root (cut)
  
• 3 oz Indian sarsaparilla root (cut)
  
• 2 oz burdock root (cut)
• 4 cinnamon sticks (cracked)
• 1/2 oz star anise
• 1/2 oz wintergreen
• 8 strips of orange zest
• 10 cups dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup molasses
• 4 Tablespoons root beer extract

Boil everything except sugars and extract in 1 gallon of water for 25 minutes. Reduce heat to simmer for a few minutes. Remove spices. Add sugars and extract, stir till dissolved. Turn off heat. Cool down mixture in pot in sink filled with cold water. Pour mixture in keg and top off with cold water. Force carbonate.

I don't know if it was the recipe or my (untested) keg but I had the hardest time getting this to carbonate. After about three weeks, it was had a slight amount of carbonation. Ultimately, I poured it out of my keg and into a couple of 2 liter bottles to try later. (More on that below.)


Color: This recipe has a very dark brown color to it.
Taste: WOW!! The star anise flavor of black licorice over powered everything. I couldn't taste anything but black licorice. This recipe should be renamed to Black Licorice Beer. The taste is just way too strong. I'll have to make blog posts of ingredients so I know what flavors are good and what will over power others.
Overall: Unfortunately, I couldn't tell what the root beer flavor would be. I did not like this at all. I do, however, have some hope for it. I tried some by diluting it in a little bit of water and it's much better. So I'll comment on that at another time.
Rating: 1 out of 10

Root Beer Recipe #2 - "Blackstrap"

This root beer recipe comes from Ted Danyluk, a homebrewer. I would have followed his recipe exactly but there was a couple of differences that I had to use. His recipe is for a 3 gallon keg and I have a 5 gallon keg. The other difference is that I couldn't find cassia buds anywhere except for 1 place online and I didn't have time to wait for it this time around. There may also be slight diffences in the brands that used.

Here's the ingredients for my 5 gallon recipe:

• 4 cinnamon sticks (cracked)
• 1/2 oz licorice root (cut)
• 1 teaspoon grains of paradise (fresh ground)
  
• 4 1/2 cups organic evaporated cane juice sugar
• 3 1/3 cups organic light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup blackstrap molasses
• 1/2 cup malto dextrin
• 5 Tablespoons root beer extract (I used 4 1/2 T of birch root beer extract and 1/2 T of regular)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Boil 1 1/3 gallons of water with spices for 30 minutes. Turn off heat. Add sugars and extracts. Place pot in sink filled with cold water to cool down the mixture. Add to keg. Top off keg with cold water. Force carbonate.

It took longer to carbonate than I had anticipated. I'm sure I'll learn the techniques better as I do more.


Color: The color was much darker. A color that I would expect a root beer to be. I'm sure that the molasses and root beer extract helped in that.
Taste: This had a very good root beer taste to it. There is something to the taste, however, that makes me not want to drink a lot of it in one day. I'm thinking that it could be just a little too sweet, or something with the sugars, or it could be the birch root beer taste instead of just root beer.
Overall: This was a good recipe. I'll most likely come back to this with some slight modifications when I want a root beer from extract.
Rating: 8 out of 10

Kegging System

It's a bit early in this new hobby to be making some major purchases but I've bought a kegging system. There was a couple of reasons for the push to buy one.

• Just with my first batch of root beer, I noticed that my wife and I were too worried about the yeast's fermentation making alcohol. Even though I was certain there wasn't enough to be worried about, it was still a concern. I couldn't smell or taste anything that would make us think that, it was just in our heads because of the fermentation process.
• Since announcing my new hobby, I've been asked to make root beer for my sister-in-law's wedding. That's going to be a lot of root beer! And there'd be no way that I could make that much by bottling. I doubt that I could even find a suitable recipe in that time, 2 months.

There is also the wanted reasons to get one, mostly the coolness factor. It's kind of neat to have some bigger equipment.

I called around to the couple local brewing stores to find out what they sold. I decided to go with Art's Brewing Supplies. I went with him because he was selling a used system with 2 Cornelius 5 gallon kegs and a 20lb CO2 cylinder for just a little more than the other store who was selling just 1 keg and a 5lb cylinder. I was able spend some time with Art asking him all the questions I had using the kegging system. He is very knowledgeable and has been selling this stuff for a very long time.

I now just got to decide on my next recipe to use.