Root beer

[Steve B]

Someone asked me to make a keg of plain root beer for a picnic once they
found I had kegging capabilities.

I think the fountain dispensaries pump syrup, and mix it with carbonated
water at the head. Right?

Would I just make up some water, flavoring, and sugar, and keg it, force
carbonate it, and then dispense from that?

Steve

[Bart Goddard]

Post by Steve B
Someone asked me to make a keg of plain root beer for a picnic once they
found I had kegging capabilities.
I think the fountain dispensaries pump syrup, and mix it with carbonated
water at the head. Right?
Would I just make up some water, flavoring, and sugar, and keg it, force
carbonate it, and then dispense from that?

Yes, if you're using one of those 2 oz bottles of flavoring.
You might boil the water first to sanitize it.

There are "scratch" recipes for root beer around the internets.
I think Cat's Meow has several.

[Steve Bonine]

Post by Bart Goddard
There are "scratch" recipes for root beer around the internets.
I think Cat's Meow has several.

I was amazed at the number of recipes available and the variety of
techniques. The easiest one I saw basically took root beer concentrate,
mixed with water and sugar, and carbonated using soda water.
Intermediate is to make it with concentrate and bottle condition using
yeast to create the carbonation. Then, as you said, there are several
from-scratch recipes, including one that calls for boiling sarsaparilla,
sassafras, hops, and coriander for 12 hours.

Fascinating.

[Bart Goddard]

Post by Steve Bonine

Post by Bart Goddard
There are "scratch" recipes for root beer around the internets.
I think Cat's Meow has several.

I was amazed at the number of recipes available and the variety of
techniques. The easiest one I saw basically took root beer concentrate,
mixed with water and sugar, and carbonated using soda water.
Intermediate is to make it with concentrate and bottle condition using
yeast to create the carbonation. Then, as you said, there are several
from-scratch recipes, including one that calls for boiling sarsaparilla,
sassafras, hops, and coriander for 12 hours.
Fascinating.

I used to do the "easiest" when my kids were pop-drinking age.
I've never done anything harder in that direction. I
bottle conditioned a batch or two, but you've GOT to keep
it cold, or you'll have glass grenades. (Some folks said
they used mostly NutraSweet, which the yeast won't eat, and
just enough sugar to carbonate, but I have no experience
with that.)

[Doug Freyburger]

Post by Steve Bonine

Post by Bart Goddard
There are "scratch" recipes for root beer around the internets.
I think Cat's Meow has several.

I was amazed at the number of recipes available and the variety of
techniques. The easiest one I saw basically took root beer concentrate,
mixed with water and sugar, and carbonated using soda water.
Intermediate is to make it with concentrate and bottle condition using
yeast to create the carbonation. Then, as you said, there are several
from-scratch recipes, including one that calls for boiling sarsaparilla,
sassafras, hops, and coriander for 12 hours.

Maybe 20 years ago I made a couple of scratch recipes of root beer
complete with trips to multiple herbalist stores to find all of the
ingredients. Complete with telling the one herbalist "Yes, this
sassafrass is for a bouquet garnee. I know it is not safe for human
consumption." Complete with spending most of a weekend day in the
botany section of a university library reading to see if I was willing
to consume a sassafrass product that I had made myself.

The first batch was my first and best lesson in bacterial contamination
from leaving cooling liquid uncovered. The second batch was a lesson
that even with a printed recipe it can take quite some tuning to make
something I like. My notes say "no spikenard, use more sassparilla
and/or sassafrass" but I never have made that third batch.

[Steve Bonine]

Post by Doug Freyburger
Maybe 20 years ago I made a couple of scratch recipes of root beer
complete with trips to multiple herbalist stores to find all of the
ingredients. Complete with telling the one herbalist "Yes, this
sassafrass is for a bouquet garnee. I know it is not safe for human
consumption." Complete with spending most of a weekend day in the
botany section of a university library reading to see if I was willing
to consume a sassafrass product that I had made myself.

We used to make sassafras tea from the roots of the tree as a spring
tonic. I'm had not realized that our FDA protectors have decided that
it is dangerous.

[Doug Freyburger]

Post by Steve Bonine

Post by Doug Freyburger
Maybe 20 years ago I made a couple of scratch recipes of root beer
complete with trips to multiple herbalist stores to find all of the
ingredients. Complete with telling the one herbalist "Yes, this
sassafrass is for a bouquet garnee. I know it is not safe for human
consumption." Complete with spending most of a weekend day in the
botany section of a university library reading to see if I was willing
to consume a sassafrass product that I had made myself.

We used to make sassafras tea from the roots of the tree as a spring
tonic. I'm had not realized that our FDA protectors have decided that
it is dangerous.

Saferol, the active flavor ingredient in sassafrass, was discovered to
be a carcinogen. You may remember that root beer tasted a lot better
when we were kids and then it started tasting fake. That's when they
switched to artificial flavoring that attempts to emulate the saferol
without being cancinogenic.

My day in the botany section was to figure out the relative doses used
on the rats to trigger the cancer. I calculated that I would need to
drink gallons of root beer per day for decades to hit that dosage of
saferol. At that point I concluded that much real root beer would kill
me from diabetes from the sugar long before it would give me cancer.
Clearly no one should accept my conclusion on this. If you're going to
decide to brew something with a carcinogenic ingredient don't take
anybody's word for anything.

Doing it today I would use the wintergreen chemical instead. It is
found in both wintergreen leaves and birch bark. If you've ever had
Birch Beer it's basically a root beer tonic with either birch bark or
wintergreen in the place of sassafrass. Brewing with ingredients that
are not carcinogenic is a pretty good idea!

[Steve Bonine]

Post by Doug Freyburger
My day in the botany section was to figure out the relative doses used
on the rats to trigger the cancer. I calculated that I would need to
drink gallons of root beer per day for decades to hit that dosage of
saferol. At that point I concluded that much real root beer would kill
me from diabetes from the sugar long before it would give me cancer.
Clearly no one should accept my conclusion on this. If you're going to
decide to brew something with a carcinogenic ingredient don't take
anybody's word for anything.

I understand. Agencies that regulate carcinogenic chemicals are going
to be extremely conservative in the regulations that they promulgate.
And I've seen people who consume more soft drinks every day of their
lives than I would have believed possible. But it does pain me that
because there exist people who don't understand the meaning of the word
"moderation", we cannot obtain things that don't cause any harm if used
in moderation.

Post by Doug Freyburger
Doing it today I would use the wintergreen chemical instead. It is
found in both wintergreen leaves and birch bark. If you've ever had
Birch Beer it's basically a root beer tonic with either birch bark or
wintergreen in the place of sassafrass. Brewing with ingredients that
are not carcinogenic is a pretty good idea!

Yes, but birch beer is not root beer. I very much doubt that I will
ever get around to making root beer from scratch, but if I do, I want it
to be root beer. Actually, now that we've had this conversation, it
makes me want to make root beer, the real thing.

[Etian]

Post by Doug Freyburger
My day in the botany section was to figure out the relative doses used
on the rats to trigger the cancer. I calculated that I would need to
drink gallons of root beer per day for decades to hit that dosage of
saferol. At that point I concluded that much real root beer would kill
me from diabetes from the sugar long before it would give me cancer.
Clearly no one should accept my conclusion on this. If you're going to
decide to brew something with a carcinogenic ingredient don't take
anybody's word for anything.

I understand. Agencies that regulate carcinogenic chemicals are going to
be extremely conservative in the regulations that they promulgate. And
I've seen people who consume more soft drinks every day of their lives
than I would have believed possible. But it does pain me that because
there exist people who don't understand the meaning of the word
"moderation", we cannot obtain things that don't cause any harm if used
in moderation.

Post by Doug Freyburger
Doing it today I would use the wintergreen chemical instead. It is
found in both wintergreen leaves and birch bark. If you've ever had
Birch Beer it's basically a root beer tonic with either birch bark or
wintergreen in the place of sassafrass. Brewing with ingredients that
are not carcinogenic is a pretty good idea!

Yes, but birch beer is not root beer. I very much doubt that I will ever
get around to making root beer from scratch, but if I do, I want it to
be root beer. Actually, now that we've had this conversation, it makes
me want to make root beer, the real thing.

The first principle of pharmacology: What is the difference between a
medication and a poison? Answer: The dosage.

[Will Trice]

I understand. Agencies that regulate carcinogenic chemicals are going to
be extremely conservative in the regulations that they promulgate. And
I've seen people who consume more soft drinks every day of their lives
than I would have believed possible. But it does pain me that because
there exist people who don't understand the meaning of the word
"moderation", we cannot obtain things that don't cause any harm if used
in moderation.

You can still buy sassafras, it just comes with a label warning. I've
used it to make root beer from scratch, but, like Doug, I won't be doing
that again. Real root beer is not real tasty to me.

-Will

will dot trice at comcast dot net

[Tony V]

Post by Will Trice
Real root beer is not real tasty to me.

Is root beer popular in other countries besides the U.S.? I think that
you must be born in such a country to like the stuff. I did most of my
growing up near Amsterdam and never heard of it 'till I came to America.
I've lived here for most of my life and never developed a liking for the
stuff (ditto for Dr. Pepper).

Tony

[b***@ureach.com]

When I was a kid, back in 60's and 70's, I used to dig up sassafras
roots and make tea. Never saw warnings printed on the trees.

Roger

[T.J. Higgins]

Post by b***@ureach.com
When I was a kid, back in 60's and 70's, I used to dig up sassafras
roots and make tea. Never saw warnings printed on the trees.

We can't buy sassafras oil to make root beer, because some
bureaucrats say it is a carcinogen, yet we can still buy
tobacco.

And the government wonders why the people hate it so much...

[Doug Freyburger]

Post by T.J. Higgins

Post by b***@ureach.com
When I was a kid, back in 60's and 70's, I used to dig up sassafras
roots and make tea. Never saw warnings printed on the trees.

We can't buy sassafras oil to make root beer, because some
bureaucrats say it is a carcinogen, yet we can still buy
tobacco.

At some point it used to be allowed to sell sassafrass bark for use in
potpouri as long as it was marked "Not for human consumption".

[b***@ureach.com]

you can still buy file - powdered sassafras leaves - to thicken gumbo

R

[Doug Freyburger]

Post by b***@ureach.com
you can still buy file - powdered sassafras leaves - to thicken gumbo

The leaves don't have the saferol which both gives the distinctive
flavor of traditional root beer and is also carcinogenic.

[Steve Bonine]

Post by b***@ureach.com
When I was a kid, back in 60's and 70's, I used to dig up sassafras
roots and make tea. Never saw warnings printed on the trees.

This reminds me of a funny story that will lose a lot in the telling,
but I'll try anyway.

Several years ago I had an aunt who was diagnosed with cancer. We were
all sitting around the dining room table talking about this and that,
remembering the good 'ole days. One of the topics that came up was a
variety of Scandinavian cookie that is no longer made because one of the
ingredients, baker's ammonia, was determined to be a carcinogen. The
comment from the aunt went something like, "Well, that's ridiculous; I
ate those cookies for years and they didn't hurt me." When we realized
the irony of what she had said, we had a good laugh.

I think that the chance of her cancer being related to baker's ammonia
is about as remote as the chance that I'll die because of my consumption
of sassafras tea as a child. But I suppose that if I worked for the
FDA, my opinion might be different.

[Bob F]

Post by Steve B
Someone asked me to make a keg of plain root beer for a picnic once
they found I had kegging capabilities.
I think the fountain dispensaries pump syrup, and mix it with
carbonated water at the head. Right?
Would I just make up some water, flavoring, and sugar, and keg it,
force carbonate it, and then dispense from that?

I buy flavoring syrups, pour a little in a glass, and top it off with carbonated
syrup.

If you put root beer into a corny, you may have to replace seals afterwards. The
lid seal really holds the flavor. This info is based on acquired used kegs.

[Will Trice]

Post by Bob F
If you put root beer into a corny, you may have to replace seals afterwards. The
lid seal really holds the flavor. This info is based on acquired used kegs.

You're right in that the smell never really goes away (I've kegged
made-from-scratch rootbeer). But I never noticed anything in the taste
of subsequent beers from the same keg, so I'm not sure that seal
replacement is absolutely essential. But it is cheap insurance against
tainting the next batch.

-Will

will dot trice at comcast dot net

[Steve B]

Post by Will Trice

Post by Bob F
If you put root beer into a corny, you may have to replace seals afterwards. The
lid seal really holds the flavor. This info is based on acquired used kegs.

You're right in that the smell never really goes away (I've kegged
made-from-scratch rootbeer). But I never noticed anything in the taste of
subsequent beers from the same keg, so I'm not sure that seal replacement
is absolutely essential. But it is cheap insurance against tainting the
next batch.
-Will

On some beers, I would think root beer would be a positive addition in the
flavor department. I think I'll try a little with the next smoky
porter.........

Steve