Root beer from scratch

[burninator]

Is anyone on here making their own root beer from scratch? I have a few recipes I've been eyeing, and I think I just about have the ratios I want to give this a try. Being on the east coast, sassafras grows wild on road sides and fence rows. Dandelion is ubiquitous. Chocolate mint (no wintergreen for me, thanks) is growing in a pot on the back porch, and star anise and vanilla extract, the only things I couldn't forage or grow, are cheap and easily accessible.

I'll give this a go next week, after a short weekend trip, and bottle carb using a ginger bug. Just thought I'd see if anyone has any helpful tips or experience they care to share.

 

[estricklin]

I've been wanting to make some from scratch for a long time now, I've looked online and haven't found too many recipes that I could trust. I may have the start the task of just scouting out the sources for the ingredients and messing up a few batches until I get it. I was able to find quite a bit of the stuff on Amazon, like sarsaparilla and star of anise.

Definitely keep us posted on what you come up with.

 

[droshi]

Have you guys seen my recipe? Not exactly positive what you call "from scratch" but my experience with herbal only root beers is that they lack a bit of flavor, no matter how much you use. I believe boiling only gets out a certain amount of the goodies before the oils are volatilized and gone, at least without specialized equipment.

This is why I like to use 100% essential oils as the main flavor, with supplemental herbs.

 

[Bwerner]

I've made the Serious Eats recipe (http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/08/diy-root-beer-how-to-brew-your-own-root-beer-recipe.html) and it came out really well when I made it to the T. I thought it tasted too molasses-y which masked the herbs so I've been experimenting with different variations (less sugar, more herbs, etc) and each batch has come out like crap. Either over-carbed or tastes horrid or both... I'm still working on my own recipe but the serious eats one is a good starting point IMO.

 

[aruzinsky]

Chocolate mint (no wintergreen for me, thanks)

Do you have an objection to just wintergreen or do you object to methyl salicylate, in general? It is easy enough to substitute sweet birch oil or USP grade methyl salicylate. The vast majority of root beer formulas have methyl salicylate as a component and it is nearly impossible to get a traditional root beer flavor without it.

Root beers that are made directly from herbs tend to be bitter (like regular beer) because tannins and other nonvolatile compounds found in herbs are bitter. Many people use essential oils and volatile flavor chemicals to avoid bitterness. I suggest that you use essential oils and freshly picked (not dried) sassafras to minimize bitterness.

 

[burninator]

Do you have an objection to just wintergreen or do you object to methyl salicylate, in general? It is easy enough to substitute sweet birch oil or USP grade methyl salicylate. The vast majority of root beer formulas have methyl salicylate as a component and it is nearly impossible to get a traditional root beer flavor without it.

Root beers that are made directly from herbs tend to be bitter (like regular beer) because tannins and other nonvolatile compounds found in herbs are bitter. Many people use essential oils and volatile flavor chemicals to avoid bitterness. I suggest that you use essential oils and freshly picked (not dried) sassafras to minimize bitterness.

My understanding is that the addition of wintergreen accomplishes two things:

1. It gives the root beer a slight minty/cool bite.
2. It replaces the saffrole supplied by sassafras root.

Since I'm using foraged sassafras root in my beer, I'm going with just the tiniest amount (think one or two small sprigs) of chocolate mint to maintain a cool bite.

My sassafras root is freshly picked, but I'm actually looking forward to an herbal bitterness in this root beer that you wouldn't find in commercial varieties.

BTW I've had to delay this while I restart a ginger bug (last one turned too acidic), but I plan to carry out this experiment this week.

 

[aruzinsky]

My understanding is that the addition of wintergreen accomplishes two things:

1. It gives the root beer a slight minty/cool bite.

Although often described a "minty," methyl salicylate is rarely described as "cool." See http://www.thegoodscentscompany.com/data/rw1008472.html and click "Organoleptics." Peppermint's cooling effect is due to menthol. Also, I have experimented with menthol, peppermint and spearmint oils in root beer and the results were disappointing.

2. It replaces the saffrole supplied by sassafras root.

No, that falls under the category, "If you hear a lie often enough, you believe it is true." Pre-1960 commercial root beer typically contained safrole, methyl salicylate and anethol which implies that none of these components can be replaced by the others. Also, there is a patent for elaborate mixtures to replace the flavor of methyl salicylate. The people behind this patent aren't fools, i.e., the flavor of methyl salicylate is very difficult to duplicate.

 

[Dominic1920]

You can always use wintergreen lifesavers as a source of methyl salicylate, they are packed with it.

 

[Snow4phil]

In regards to the serious eats recipe, it is made for 1 gallon. Would you just multiply everything by 5, for 5 gallons?

 

[NeoBrew]

I've made a couple batches with different recipes. The first was from the Nourished Kitchen website. I didn't care for that on as much. The second was from http://www.chow.com/recipes/10681-chow-root-beer

I found the Chow recipe to be incredibly flavorful. In fact too much so! I could probably have diluted it at least 50%. But it had a really great flavor. I'm definitely going to try that one again and be ready to water down the batch at the end to get the intensity that I am looking for.

 

[burninator]

In regards to the serious eats recipe, it is made for 1 gallon. Would you just multiply everything by 5, for 5 gallons?

I haven't made it yet, and I'm not sure how it will scale, but it seems to me that since you're not producing alcohol as a preservative, you don't want to produce more than you can drink in a relatively short amount of time. Just my own speculation, though.

 

[TrickyDick]

You can always use wintergreen lifesavers as a source of methyl salicylate, they are packed with it.

Probably true! They list only four ingredients: sugar, corn syrup, artificial flavor, stearic acid. I bet if you melted these gently in warm water to make a simple syrup of sorts it would probably fit the bill.

I live in FL. No natural foraging for me, and I don't trust any dried wintergreen leaves. I can recall chewing them as a child. I think the life savers are pretty close. Altoids by comparison have a bunch of artificial sweeteners and colors.

My son has recently asked to brew some root beer. I've never done.

For the first go around, going to use gnome extract plus 1 pound sugar per gallon, probably a mix of cane, maple syrup, and maybe a bit of lactose. Was thinking about force carbonating then bottling from that. Not a big fan of using yeast.

I've bookmarked that chow recipe and will plan to try round two without extract.

Would like to see some pics and tasting comments with recipes so we can all get good at this!!

TD