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

Root Beer Recipe #1 - "Sarsaparilla"

I got this root beer recipe at the brew store that I purchased my first pieces of equipment. It's a pretty simple recipe so it should be easy for a first timer.

The recipe creates 5 gallons and since my brewing pot isn't large enough to start, I'm halving the it, which I doubt should hurt anything. So what I'm listing here is the halved amount. Ingredients needed:

• 1/2 oz Wintergreen Leaves
• 1 oz Indian Sarsaparilla
• 1/2 T Sarsaparilla extract
• 4 cups cane sugar (I'm just using the normal white grocery store kind)
• 1/4 t Coopers Ale yeast (This maybe will be silly to half but here goes nothing)

First bring 1 gallon of water to a boil. Turn off heat. Add Wintergreen leaves and Indian Sarsaparilla (which I but in my straining grain bag), cover and let stand for 2 hours. I left the house so I actually let it soak for 6 hours, but who's counting. Remove grain bag. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Add extract and re-hydrated yeast. Transfer to larger bucket (because my pot is too small) and add 1 1/2 gallons of water. Mix well. Siphon into bottles and cap. Leave set at 65° to 80° for 3 to 7 days. Check for carbonation. When carbonated, refrigerate to stop additional fermentation and bursting bottles. Chill and drink.

Beside using glass bottles, I siphoned into two plastic soda bottles so that I could squeeze the bottle to test for carbonation.

Day 3 - I got a little impatient to test how this worked. By squeezing the plastic bottles I could tell that carbonation was happening. They were getting quite firm so I thought that I would get one a test. Nope, not carbonated enough, it was a bit flat.
Day 5 - One more plastic soda bottle left and it's even more firm now. ... Almost there. It's much more carbonated than day 3 but still needs just a little more time.
Day 7 - Just right. The bottle are now carbonated. I now refrigerate the remaining bottles.

Color: The color seems a bit light. I don't think the picture really shows the color too well. I doubt that the color of my root beer really will be a factor of if I like it or not.
Taste: I didn't think it tasted strong enough. There is a root beer taste and smell but it just seems like it's missing more.
Overall: I just didn't like it. I ended up dumping all but a couple of bottles to keep for something just to sip on and taste.
Rating: 3 out of 10