How To Brew: Root Beer

With National Root Beer Float Day coming up on August 6th, I asked my brewmaster husband, Ken, to show me a thing or two about how to make root beer at home. Though now that it’s ready, I have a feeling it’s not going to last until August 6th!

I’m not typically a huge fan of pop (or soda as say they outside of Minnesota), but I am a root beer kind of girl, especially in the summertime. This recipe makes 1 gallon, and is naturally carbonated meaning, no Sodastream or CO2 cartridge is needed. The process is pretty straight forward–just make sure to read the instructions thoroughly. Happy summering!

Ingredients:

•  1/8 tsp ale yeast or champagne yeast.
• 2 Tbsp. of root beer extract
• 1 Gallon of water
•  2.5 Cups unpacked brown sugar

Special Equipment:

• Amber plastic bottles with unused screw caps. Glass bottles are not recommended as they can explode from the pressure.
• Cooking thermometer
• Funnel
• Sanitizer

In a small cup or bowl, dissolve yeast in a 1/4 cup of warm tap water and set aside.

In a stock pot, heat 1/2 of the gallon of water to 130 degrees F and remove from heat. Stir in 2.5 cups of brown sugar until completely dissolved. And then stir in 2 tbsp of root beer extract.

Plug and fill your kitchen sink with super cold water (from the tap) and place stock pot into the cold “bath,” stirring occasionally and changing cold water bath until mixture reaches 90 degrees F.

Dissolve yeast into root beer mixture and add the remaining 1/2 gallon of cool water.

Sanitize the Bottles: Either in your sink or a large bowl, create a sanitizer bath to rinse your plastic bottles and caps. (Follow sanitizer’s instructions.) You’ll also want to sanitize funnel and a cup or vessel with a pouring lip to make it easier to transport the root beer from the stock pot to the bottles.

Place the funnel on each bottle and fill to 1-2 inches below the bottle neck. Screw bottle caps tightly onto bottles and store on their side at room temperature for 48-72 hours until the bottles are very firm to the touch. At this point it’s important to move the bottles to the refrigerator in order to kill the yeast. Otherwise you’ll end up with a smelly aroma and a funny aftertaste and no one wants that, do they? Bottles should be stored upright in the fridge.

Pour into a frosted mug and sip away!