Homemade Root Beer

Posted by admin on May 30, 2012 in Homebrew | 0 comments

I know it’s been a while, but things have been a little busy. I’ve brewed a few times in the last several months, and I’ll get those recipes posted here soon. In the meantime, ever since I started kegging, I’ve been making root beer with my son. For our first batch, we tried the Old Fashioned Root Beer extract I found at the homebrew shop. It was OK, but I was told by a friend that I could get better extract from Zatarain’s, and could get a good discount by buying 12 at a time.

I’ve made several batches now with the Zatarain’s, and after pouring an entire bag of cane sugar into our first batch, my son and I have been experimenting with different levels of sugar and Splenda. Our last batch was completely Splenda (sugar-free) and it was OK, but it had an obvious flavor difference. There’s also a lot of licorice and slightly sharp flavors, so I asked around to see what I could do to make it a bit creamier and smoother. I decided to go with two suggestions… adding vanilla extract and going with some corn sugar (dextrose).

We just made this recipe tonight, and I’ll report back on how it tastes soon.

2.5 gallons of water warmed on the stove
1 lb corn sugar
.5 lb cane sugar
8 cups of Splenda for baking
2 TBS Vanilla extract
4oz of Zatarain’s Root Beer extract (1 bottle)

Poured the mixture into a 5 gallon corney keg and topped off with water. Force carbonated it and let it sit in fridge overnight.