Jul 02 2010
A Few Important Considerations Relating To Home Made Root Beer
One of the most ordinarily brewed non-alcoholic drinks being brewed today is root lager, maybe due to the word lager in the name. Making home made root beer is relatively easy, especially for those that begin the process using root beer extract instead of mixing their own flavors. Charles Hires is typically considered the first dad of root lager, but is also believed that he did not really invent the taste, but only popularized it. In addition, root lager was spiced with sassafras, which was banned in 1960 once it was judged to lead to cancer.
Today’s home made root lager is flavored primarily with wintergreen with vanilla, ginger, licorice and sarsaparilla mixed in for extra effect. Nonetheless the most straightforward way to make home made root lager is by utilising a root lager extract, superior the kind sold in a brewing supply outlet rather than what’s available in most corner store stores. To make the 1st batch, you’ll need a container huge enough in which to boil 5 gallons of water and still have room left over for 4 pounds of sugar.
If you buy the root beer extract from a provider, it’ll generally have a recipe to tell you how much to contribute to the boiling sugar water, but you are free to sample it and adjust the quantity of extract added to your house made root lager.
Everybody knows that root lager is meant to be carbonated and so as to add the bubbles to the libation you’re going to need to add yeast to the mix. Some recipes call for adding champaign yeast, but those experienced in home made root beer recommend using ale yeast. Champaign yeast lives longer under stress when it is bottled and can often cause the bottles of home made root lager to burst under the pressure.
As the yeast is added to the flavored mixture it begins to react with the sugar, creating the fizz. It will take at least 12 hours to add the proper carbonation and when making home made root beer if it does not seem to have the kick of the fizz, an extra twelve hours of fermentation potentially won’t hurt it any. Once fermentation is finished, the home made root lager is prepared to be bottled.
The bottles should be sterilised to stop the expansion of bacteria. Once the pressure within the bottles reaches a certain point, the fermentation of the home made beer will cease and the bottles and be chilled and stored in a cool place until consumed.
