Root Beer shelf life

[Michael B]

I’m a noob! Actually “really” a beginner as I’m just exploring this idea of home brewing. My wife and do a lot of canning for holiday gifts and was thinking of how cool a liter bottle of home brewed root beer would be in a gift set with salsa and chow chow.
Wondering just how long a home brewed root beer last in bottles on the shelf?

I’m not afraid of the whole yeast carb idea but just how long after you stop the yeast effect will a bottle last. Can you take it back out of the fridge and store it on a shelf? Ship it?

 

[Yooper]

How do you plan on “stopping the yeast?” That is the major trick.

 

[Michael B]

That’s what I’m asking. After bottling does it have to stay refrigerated until consumed. Maybe “home brew” means can only consume at home too.

 

[shoengine]

Bottle conditioned root beer is tough from what I hear. The yeast will want to eat all the sugar, and I'm not even sure a refrigerator will fully stop them. Certainly not after taking them out.

 

[Yooper]

That’s what I’m asking. After bottling does it have to stay refrigerated until consumed. Maybe “home brew” means can only consume at home too.

Well, the soda called root beer isn't brewed, so it can go anywhere. "Brewing" means making/boiling wort like for beer, and an alcoholic root beer would be in the homebrew category and have to follow your local laws.

For root beer soda, you mix it up and bottle it with some yeast. When the bottles get hard, they go in the fridge because the yeast will eat the sugar until it's gone and the bottles explode unless you stop them. It can be done by pasteurization and so on, but it's not all that easy.

I don't use yeast in my soda, and that's probably the best option if you want to give it as gifts that don't have to be kept in the fridge constantly. I force carb with a co2 tank. It's a bit of a pain putting it in bottles, though, since it loses carb when you transfer it. I serve out of the keg and a tap, like with beer.

 

[shoengine]

I got into kegging specifically for root beer and it was a hit, once I got the ants and the kids from screwing around with it

With that said, it won't work that way for gifting unless you move into bottling force carbed root beer like yooper suggested.