There’s an old-fashioned charm to homemade root beer with its odd array of roots and bark, flowers, leaves and berries. It, like many other fermented beverages, once enjoyed position as a staple of American cookery. Water, as you know, was not always potable and raw milk, small beers, cider, perry and other fermented beverages were consumed as the drink of choice – even for small children. For a time, each community and each family enjoyed a closely guarded homemade root beer recipe.
While most home brewers now make their root beers from commercially sold root beer concentrates, there’s a certain undeniable charm of brewing root beer the traditional way – slowly simmering a concoction of roots, berries, bark and spices, dissolving a sweetener into the herbaceous brew adding a natural source of yeast, bottling and then simply waiting for the yeast to do its work. (If you’re reading this on email, be sure to click through to view the history of root beer, the safrole controversy, its use in folkloric remedies and, of course, the recipe).
Homemade Root Beer: History
While popular since the colonial era, when European colonists combined the brewing techniques of the old world with wild-crafted ingredients like sassafras. At the turn of the 20th century, an ingenious pharmacist named Charles Hire, developed a popular root beer mix featuring licorice, birch, juniper, sarsaparilla, hops, sassafras and ginger among other roots, herbs, bark, flowers and berries and through clever marketing and storytelling, his mix grew wildly popular. An 1891 pamphlet for Hire’s Root Beer, which you can see in the image above as well as in its entirety thanks to the University of Iowa, describes the inspiration for the drink in perfect Victorian-era fancy – detailing the story of Little Mabel who was given the recipe from forest gnomes and fairies.
Hire’s Root Beer was sold and resold before ending up as a holding of the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, and while the original version, much like my recipe for homemade root beer below, earned its complex flavor by natural means, the version most well-loved by the American public achieves its flavor, color and sweetness by artificial means.
The primary flavor found in any old-fashioned homemade root beer recipe is sassafras, a deciduous tree native to North America. The characteristic sweet flavor comes from the tree’s roots, thus giving us the name root beer. Incidentally, the tree’s leaves give us file powder which is the essential thickening agent in classic gumbo. Now of course, the primary flavor we associate with root beer is that of wintergreen, not of sassafras.
Homemade Root Beer & the Safrole Controversy
Wintergreen leaf, though almost always an ingredient in most traditional root beer recipes, replaced sassafras as the prominent flavor in root beer during the 1960s when a study conducted on lab animals implicated safrole, a naturally occurring polyphenol, in liver cancer. Of course, the lab rats were fed massive quantities of safrole – the human equivalent of consuming about 32 twelve-ounce bottles of root beer a day. After the study was released, the FDA required commercial soft drink makers to remove sassafras from their brews. Of course, cinnamon, nutmeg and basil also contain safrole but this seemed to escape the attention of the FDA.
Interestingly, while massive quantities of safrole caused liver cancer in lab animals, it seems that small doses may actually play a protective role for humans. Some studies indicate that safrole may actually stimulate the death of cancer cells, particularly oral cancers1,2 though it may also do so in lung3 and prostrate4 cancers.
Wintergreen, already an ingredient in root beer, offered a flavor profile strikingly similar to that of sassafras, and made a ready replacement. Most root beers made today contain neither sassafras nor wintergreen and are instead made with artificial flavors. Even wintergreen extract, the preferred flavoring for many home brewers, is difficult to attain and typically is made with propylene glycol – a petrochemical.
As for me, it seems that everything is a medicine and everything is a poison; it’s all about dosage. So when I make my root beer, I’ll take my chances with a tiny amount of safrole in natural sassafras and avoid the propylene glycol in synthetic flavorings.
Homemade Root Beer & Folkloric Remedies
Homemade root beer recipes, despite the safrole controversy, contain many herbs and spices considered medicinal in folkloric medicine. And while each homemade root beer recipe differs from the next, it is their consistencies that illustrate the power of traditional cooking and herbal medicine. Now more or less obsolete in natural and herbal medicine, sassafras was traditionally used as a diuretic and thought to cleanse the blood and promote skin health., which may account for Charles Hire’s claim that his brew purified the blood and made for rosy cheeks.
Sarsaparilla, similarly, was typically used to beautify the complexion and as a diuretic. Traditionally, wintergreen leaf was used as a carminative – that is, it was thought to prevent gas and to ease digestion, and it was also typically used to ease the pain of sciatic and epidydimitis. Licorice root, similarly, was used in folkloric medicine for its ability to ease digestive distress and some clinical evidence suggests it can be beneficial in the treatment of ulcers. Other herbs and ingredients typically used in homemade root beer: ginger, dandelion, hops, birch have also featured widely in traditional herbal medicine.
Sourcing Ingredients for Homemade Root Beer
Preparing a true homemade root beer from scratch is simple. You begin by steeping herbs and spices in hot water, and when it has cooled to blood warm – that is, it’s neither hot nor cool to the touch – you mix in sweetener, starter culture such as fresh whey, or a yeasty batch of ginger bug or, as I prefer, kefir starter culture which makes a superb base for homemade sodas and probiotic tonics and is blessedly convenient to store and keep. This mixture is then bottled and allowed to sit and ferment for a few days before its ready.
The work you put into your homemade root beer is minimal indeed, but finding the ingredients can prove challenging. Licorice root, sassafras and sarsaparilla aren’t readily stocked even by the best spice shops and natural food stores. I order my roots, spices, herbs and bark online in bulk at affordable prices from Mountain Rose Herbs – a reputable online source of organic and sustainably wild-crafted herbs and spices. Save wintergreen which I special ordered from our local health food store, they stock all the ingredients used for this old-fashioned homemade root beer recipe.
Homemade Root Beer Recipe
roots, berries, bark, leaves & flowers
Seasoned with sassafras, winter green, sarsaparilla and eight other herbs and spices, amassing the ingredients for this classic homemade root beer recipe can prove challenging. I recommend purchasing from Mountain Rose Herbs which stocks even the most obscure wild-crafted and organic herbs and spices.
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup sassafras root bark
- 1/4 cup winter green leaf
- 2 tablespoons sarsaparilla root
- 1 tablespoon licorice root
- 1 tablespoon ginger root
- 1 tablespoon dandelion root
- 1 tablespoon hops flowers
- 1 tablespoon birch bark
- 1 tablespoon wild cherry tree bark
- 1 teaspoon juniper berries
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 cup unrefined cane sugar (see sources)
- 1/2 cup ginger bug or fresh whey or 1 packet kefir starter culture (buy it online)
Equipment:
- saucepan
- fine-mesh sieve or reusable coffee filter
- pitcher
- flip-top bottles (see sources)
Method:
- Bring two and one-half quarts filtered water to a boil and stir in sassafras, sarsaparilla, wintergreen, licorice, ginger, hops, juniper, birch and wild cherry bark. Reduce the heat to a slow simmer and simmer the roots, berries, barks, leaves and flowers for twenty minutes.
- After twenty minutes, turn off the heat and strain the infusion through a fine-mesh sieve or a colander lined with cheesecloth into a pitcher. Stir unrefined cane sugar into the hot infusion until it dissolves and allow it to cool until it reaches blood temperature. Once the sweetened infusion has cooled to blood temperature, stir in the ginger bug or fresh whey and pour into individual bottles (preferably flip-top bottles which are easy enough to find online (see sources), leaving at least one inch head space in each bottle.
- Allow the root beer to ferment for three to four days at room temperature, then transfer to the refrigerator for an additional two days to age. When you’re ready to serve the root beer, be careful as it, like any other fermented beverage, is under pressure due to the accumulation of carbon-dioxide, a byproduct of fermentation. Open it over a sink and note that homemade sodas, like this one, have been known to explode under pressure. Serve over ice.
TIME: 20 minutes (stovetop), 2 hours (steeping), 3 to 4 days (fermentation), 2 days (refrigeration) | YIELD: 2 quarts
1. Yu, et al. Safrole induces cell death in human tongue squamous cancer SCC-4 cells through mitochondria-dependent caspase activation cascade apoptotic signaling pathways. Environmental Toxicology. May 2011. 2. Yu, et al. Safrole induces apoptosis in human oral cancer HSC-3 cells. Journal of Dental Research. February 2011. 3. Du, et al. Safrole oxide induces apoptosis by up-regulating Fas and FasL instead of integrin beta4 in A549 human lung cancer cells. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry. April 2006. 4. Chang, et al. Safrole-induced Ca2+ mobilization and cytotoxicity in human PC3 prostate cancer cells.Journal of Receptor & Signal Transduction Research. 2006.
This looks awesome! I would love to do this but it looks like the ingredients might be challenging to find – especially out here in the AZ desert. I have been trying my own ginger beer and trying to perfect my kombucha lately and I wanted to share some anecdotal advice. I found when I left the drinks (especially ginger beer) to ferment at room temp it gets really carbonated – and all the carbonation promptly leaves with half the drink when I open it and it gushes out. The little I have left is still pretty flat. After experimenting, I found that if you put in directly into the fridge WITHOUT OPENING IT after room temperature fermentation, the carbonation “moves into” the liquid and makes it really fizzy. And when I open it, there’s no mega-flow destroying my hard work. Wondering if this will help as people experiment with this…and if anybody else has a similar experience.
I agree completely, Sarah – that’s why I recommend fermenting at room temperature for 3 to 4 days and then refrigerating for 2. Somehow the refrigeration makes the carbonation better.
Is there anyway to do this without the fermentation process. I’m trying to avoid alcohol even a microscopic percentage, it’s a belief thing. I have looked into ways to make root beer as I love it and some sites talk aboutsomething I think I remember to be called flash carbonation or something close to that. So I guess could I mix the ingredients and then get it carbonated (there’s a place that can do it really close to me), as opposed to allowing the ingredients to ferment? Would it still maintain the flavor properly? Or would I be messing it up trying to do it a different way?
what about the alcohol your gut microflora produces?
lol! Thank you for this reminder. I used to work with some women that would get downright giddy about an hour after their heavy laden carbo lunches, it was so predictable
I’m a homebrewer, and the only method I know of to carbonate other than bottle conditioning is force carbonating (which is what I do). You would need to get a small keg of some sort (I use typical 5 gal. home brewers cornelius kegs). Put your uncarbonated rootbeer in that. Put it in the fridge and allow it to cool for a day. Then you would hook up a CO2 tank to your keg and set the regulator to about 20 psi or so and let it sit in the fridge like that for about 5 days. At which point the CO2 will have dissolved into the solution and roughly to the volume you’d want. Now you can either hook this keg up to a draft system or get a picnic tap. If you want it bottled though the best bet would be to get a beer gun for bottling. That’s a whole lot of extra equipment though to avoid the bottle conditioning. You would need to decide how much you really want to do this.
On another note to the other posts. You have to keep your root beer chilled if you don’t want all the CO2 to leave when you open it because CO2 will not stay dissolved in solution when at room temperature or warmer. That’s why warm soda (and beer for that matter) goes flat so much faster than cold.
I also find that after placing your batch into the refrigerator and letting it sit for a couple of days the carbonation is quite persistent. I left an unfinished, open bottle of root beer in a relatively warm house(75 degrees), and when i found it two days later it still fizzed like crazy when being dumped out.
Gases dissolve more readily in cold liquids, the opposite of solids, which require high temperatures to dissolve. So the colder you make your beverage – without actually freezing – the better carbonated it will be. It’s why, aside from the niceness, you chill champagne.
Sarah, I’ve been able to find all these herbs at Desert Sage Herbs in Tempe. Even the more difficult to find ones are there. Hope you see this! I know it was a few months ago when you commented
Oh my, you’ve quite outdone yourself on this one, Jenny!
Thanks, Ren! That means a lot coming from you. I am and will forever be an Edible Aria fan.
Agree. The history, the story, the recipe, the pics. This is quite inspiring!
I’m always looking for new drink ideas. This one looks marvelous but it also looks like a lot of work with ingredient shopping. I think I’ll stick with my kombucha and kefirs! Beautiful photos!
If you shop from Mountain Rose Herbs (http://bit.ly/pSj5zq), it’s pretty easy to get what you need. They stock most if not all of the necessary ingredients, and they’re sustainably wild-crafted/organic, too.
Thank you for this fascinating history of root-beer! We love it and it’s exciting to find a recipe to make it at home. Happy discovered your blog through Tastespotting, you have new fans!
I am in love with your blog and this post is fabulous! I am an amateur herbalist and love seeing recipes like this on food and nutrition blogs. I needed an excuse to make an order with Mountain Rose and now I have it. They really are a great company to order from.
Did you use roasted Dandelion root here or regular? The recipe doesn’t say, but there is quite a difference in the flavor. I’d love to know.
Thanks!
I did not use roasted root – I just was too concerned the flavor would be a little too robust for what I was going for. Glad you like it!
I love Mountain Rose Herbs, and just ordered nearly all of the stuff to try this. My local organic market couldn’t source wintergreen leaves for me, but I did find them at Starwest Botanicals. I can’t confirm that they’re organic, but they are literally the only source I could find right now (and all of the other ingredients will be organic, so you do what you can do). My husband will be SO excited – he LOVES root beer.
It was hard to find the ingredients for me, too – fortunately Mountain Rose Herbs stocked most of them, but it’s *SO* worth it!
Thanks for posting this…I just won a $25 gift card to Mountain Rose Herbs….so I think I know what I am going to be ordering!!! Thanks!
A $25 gift certificate to MRH! That rocks! I LOVE their stuff. I grow my own herbs and prefer to use them fresh anyway, but I rely on MRH for all my teas, salts and spices.
This looks like so much fun to make. What does it taste like?
Hello.
Great article!!
I had a thought, could you boil all the stuff and then add it to the second ferment of water kefir?? Do you think you would end up with something close to the flavor of root-beer??
Love all the info you have!!
That’s what I am thinking of trying…
I did try that once and didn’t like the results, but it could be that I hadn’t yet perfected my assortment of roots/herbs/flowers etc.
What kind of hops did you use? In beermaking, I’m fond of Fuggles, but I don’t see this really going well with root beer.
I just bought whatever they had at Mountain Rose Herbs – organic.
I just bought some Fuggles and some swing-top bottles at the local brewing store, so as soon as I can get the rest of these ingredients, I will get a new batch going.
Yum! Do you think I can use whey made from goat’s milk yogurt? My daughter is allergic to cow’s milk.
Thanks!
Absolutely! That will definitely work. Just make sure it’s fresh/cultured and not cooked.
Oh I’m SOLD! I am doing this as soon as I get my hands on all the ingredients. Looks divine.
Another place you can sometimes find these particular ingredients (though not all of them) are Home Brew Shops. You might be surprised to know that home brew enthusiasts want their ingredients to be extremely fresh and without herbicides/pesticides.We have one locally, and that is where I buy my flip top bottles (for more than a dollar less each than where I had found the “best” price online, plus shipping!) I also noticed that they carried some (most) of the herbs that I was going to the natural food store to buy. I still bought at the natural food store, however, it was interesting to find them at this unexpected place.
Since I’m not a beer fan (guess I never grew up enough to like it) I can think of nothing better to do with this kind of store.
BTW: This is also where I buy my Malted Barley and Malted Rye for my coffee substitute. Chicory is still bought at the Natural Food Store. Better prices and they will “crack” it for me for free!
I just love your blog! Of all the “real” food my husband and I really love the fermented beverages so far. We have been making beet kvass for a time and have just started getting into kombucha. (Much more palatable than beet kvass if you ask me)! We even made a fermented drink using cabbage once…will never do that again!!
You didnt mention the health benefits of this root beer as related to the fact that its a probiotic drink. I guess that goes without saying?
I tried to go to your sources page for where you get your bottles but the links never work for me. I have tried your resource page on several occasions. Do you know if the problem is on my end or yours?
Thank you for what you do!
I love homemade root beer! Mountain Rose Herbs is where I buy the ingredients for it and also my spices and teas. I highly recommend them.
One thing I wanted to mention, I’ve tried making homemade root beer with whey and it ends up having a weird almost “sour” taste to it. Not very good. Maybe it was because the whey came from my homemade yogurt. But I’ve also tried making a ginger bug to culture the root beer, this turned out much better… the whole family enjoyed it.
I never thought of using the kefir starter culture to make the root beer. I happen to have some on hand, so I will definitely give it a try with this. Been craving homemade root beer for awhile, now you’ve given me an excuse to make it
This sounds amazing! Lots of ingredients but I want to try it someday.
Can you use honey to brew instead of sugar?
I was wondering if it would work with sucanat.
Sucanat is simply a brand name used for unrefined cane sugar.
We’ve tried unrefined sugar for our kefir ginger ale. The grains did NOT seem to like it, so we switched back to organic sugar. FYI
Yes, you can use honey! I just made my first batch (before I came across this great recipe), and used honey instead of sugar. I used a raw unfiltered local honey. I used a little too much (two cups of honey for two gallons of liquid.), but it carbonated great and only took 24 hours! I’m letting the other bottles sit for longer see how it adds to the effect.
YAY! I’m so happy someone tried it with honey. Thanks, Philip!
Oh, and I used Ale yeast for the fermenting agent.
What do you think of using water kefir grains for this recipe? You mention the starter culture, but I have live grains I’ve been propagating for a few years. Do you think it’ll work? Say yes, oh, say yes
are there any good substitutes for wintergreen? my local herb shop has everything but that and i’d prefer not to order it if i can get something locally.
thanks!
I would double the amount of sassafras if you can’t find wintergreen. They have similar flavor profiles.
thanks! two more questions if you will – would it work to use some already made water kefir (like KeVita)? is it possible to get water kefir going off a previous batch without having any of my own starter grains? thanks again!
Not sure where u all live but I’ve picked wintergreen leaves & berries since I was a little kid. In fact I have tons of it growing wild across the road from me & more on my property! I know it grows wild in VT, NH & northwestern MA from experience. I have never checked to see it is grows wild in other states but I would bet it may be found in all New England States at least. The little red berries are excellent in the fall – which is the time for the strongest wintergreen flavor.
What do you do with the red berries? I live in Maine and we have it growing wild also. As kids we’d chew on a leaf, but what do you do with the berries?
Does anyone have any thoughts/insights/cautions for any of these roots/herbs/spices for pregnant mamas? I LOVE root beer (and ginger beer and beer-beer…
) but am trying to be careful and aware with what I’m consuming during pregnant. I know certain herbs can be dangerous during this time….
Any insight would be appreciated before I go purchase and brew!
Is there any reason not to make this with water kefir grains?
Is there any reason that I can’t do this with water kefir grains?
Love that you took the time to make homemade root beer. This is something I should try – my kids would love it!
Do you use Jamaican Sarsaparilla or Indian Sarsaparilla Root? Thanks!
I used both, actually.
I was wondering several things. I made mine last week (I was going to order all the herbs but checked the health food store a couple blocks away and found they carried everything but the wintergreen leaf and the birch bark, so I made it without them) It turned out great as far as having a mild root beer flavor but it’s totally clear like an iced tea. I used honey instead of cane sugar (I’m allergic to sugar cane) and I used fresh kefir grains. It’s also not really fizzy, it tastes more like a flatter kombucha that’s mildly flavored by root beer. Thought? I know it’s not going to like what we’ve come to know root beer to be (store bought sugar syruped grossness) but given the difference in appearance from what I made to what you have in your pictures I thought it was worth asking. Is honey a problem, is fresh Kefir a problem, any other thoughts on how to get it more fizzy and darker.
It seems like you made some pretty big deviations from this recipe: using kefir grains instead of starter/ginger bug/whey and using honey instead of sugar, and not having access to the wintergreen leaf which is a huge flavor component of root beer. Each one of those adjustments on its own might have plaid a role, but, it’s probably the combination of all of them that made a big difference. For example, unrefined cane sugar helps to achieve the dark color. Kefir grains are likely to be adversely affected by honey – and, possibly, the medicinal components of the herbs/roots and they work in cycles of extreme activity and very little activity.
Jenny, I am still trying to get all the ingredients for this. So far I was able to get quite a few of them through a local brewing equipment store so I won’t have to mail order too much more. I was just reviewing the list again and saw the 1 Tbsp of ginger root and I had skipped over that before because I almost always have some fresh ginger root on hand but now I wonder if I can use the fresh since all the other ingredients are dried? Does it matter?
Thanks! Looking forward to giving this a try.
Jenny: I did not see a reply to your question. I would be very interested in the answer before trying this because I have all of the ingredients but most are fresh not dried.
If u could let me know that would be great.
Thank you in advance!
My bottles are aging nicely on the shelf. Tomorrow night, I’ll stick them in the fridge. I have to say, though, I tasted the unbottled brew and it tasted exactly like sweetened bitter roots. Not exactly what I was expecting, and not that palatable to me.
Hopefully, it’ll improve with fermentation! We’ll hold an epic tasting in my house.
How delightful to get this story and recipe!
I have Sassafras and Birch trees. My grandchildren love crushing the leaves and scratching the twigs of the Black Birch to smell the wonderful wintergreen fragrance.
The native Americans used to chew on the twigs to clean their teeth I was told by a mountain woman historian.
I have wanted to try making the recipe which is in Nourishing Traditions Cookbook. Now with your recipe and information I feel more confident to do it.
If I dig up a piece of the Sassafras root and shave it and dry the Birch leaves, will that be the way to use it?
Is there a good herb book that I should read for more inf.?
Thanks!
Hi Jenny,
How much sugar ends up in the final product? Is this something I could drink if I’m avoiding sugar?
Well its still a soda, so you’ll have some sugar otherwise it wouldn’t taste very good. But it looks like a low sugar recipe. You may be able to reduce the sugar a little but the yeast need something to eat. Some recipes call for a lot more sugar than this but it will have some sugar left over for sure. I usually use the minimum that seems necessary for the yeast then add stevia drops to taste. It turns out great.
How much kefir grains would I use? do i just throw them in? We have sassafras here in NC and can get the fresh root. How much would I use of fresh root? Great recipe!
My husband and I were just talking about this! Something to add to the 3 year plan of things to learn how to do together!
No problem! We don’t do sugar and I always have a big jug of honey around, so it seemed a natural substitution. I knew it is used sometimes for beer, so I figured it would works fine.
Thanks for the thorough post, I’m looking forward to trying your recipe and experimenting with whey and kefir starter. I love the rich dark color of your root beer! I will also check out Mountain Rose Herbs. I did find a great little herb shop locally that had everything I needed for the recipe I used.
Wow! I want to make homemade root beer now! I didn’t even know that was possible. I love how you share all this great information too. I probably learned more in this post than in the previous ten recipes I read before landing on this site. Love it!
This looks wonderful! I have made a few attempts at root beer but I only included maybe half the roots you have used so I’m excited to try your recipe. I did find that a drop or two of wintergreen essential oil worked when I didn’t have dried wintergreen.
I was just wondering approximately how many bottles of root beer this makes? My 11yo and I can’t wait to make it but I want to not over or under order the bottles. Thanks!
Has anyone had any issues with exploding bottles. I have always wanted to try making ginger/root beer, but the exploding bottle factor has always detered me. I am the type of person that if something can go wrong it usually does to me.
thanks
i’ll probably try this now anyway as this post is very cool.
You shouldn’t think that way of yourself! You deserve better! As long as you trust yourself to burp the bottles, they won’t explode.
I have had it happen a couple of times; too muchcarbonation can be a problem if the yeast really like something. If they dont burst they may spray 5 feet into the air as well when you open the flip top. But if you burp them to get a feel of how much carbonation is building up you should be okay.
I am trying to do this on the cheap- are there other alternatives to the flip top bottles? Could I reuse bottles from store bought kombucha? They are glass with a plastic twist off lids.
Why not? I reuse those glass bottles and plastic lids from store-bought kombucha for my homemade kombucha. Just remember to burp the bottles so the lids won’t split.
The ingredients call for dandelion root and a cinnamon stick, but it doesn’t say when to add them in the directions. I’m assuming it’s in step one with the rest of the roots and herbs (and was just left out by mistake), but I wanted to confirm with someone first. This is my first attempt at making root beer.
Thanks!
My son was quaffing down a Virgils Rootbeer last week and asked me how Root Beer was made. I did a web search on traditional herbal root beers and came across your post after filtering through others that said “add root beer extract ferment and drink: boring! Anyhow thanks for posting, this was the most traditional recipe I could find in my search of Root Beer recipes. I made it with my son last weekend and its bottled and in the cupboard. I’m in SF so access to all the ingredients was easy as we have a number of herbal store resources- I also through in some raisins and a couple of cardamon pods ( just two) some recipes included these along with star anise and other things which we didn’t have. For this batch I used the Kefir starter and very interested in how it turns out- it foams when shaken so I hope that is a good sign. Hopefully will try the next batch with the ginger bug and add some other ingredients to see if there are any differences.
So I am wondering if I use kefir starter packet what do i do with the grains before it goes downt he hatch? When I pour it over ice am I straining it?? or do the grains die?? Any suggestions on making Ginger bug??
I am trying to find the bottles for this… can you help me find some….no brew stores where I live…in a tiny town in WA state….lol
I just ordered all the ingredients, got me some flip-top amber bottles, and I am geared up to make me a batch. Cross your fingers…I am hoping this will be a holiday season hit!
I’ve tried making root beer water kefir and I’m still tinkering. I want to try your recipe Jenny, it looks absolutely beautiful
It has fast become one of my son’s favorite ferments.
hey, looks like fun. Just wondering if you can tell me more about using the kefir as the method of fermentation. This is the first time I’ve come across it in fact. I did a little researching and it seems it is meant to be used to ferment milk and if used that way can be reused in every gallon of milk I might drink for ever (seemingly). What I’m wondering is if I use it to ferment root beer instead of milk- can I reuse it? Saving it for the next batch or can I then use it in milk? Or would I have to discard it? Stuff seems pretty spendy if I have to discard it.
In my search for a root beer recipe from scratch, this one is by far the best. When I make it, I don’t quite get the same color as yours but there’s a full flavor. I ended up using ale yeast instead of ginger bug (first time with ginger bug didn’t go over well). Anyway, I’m glad you posted it and I will use this as my root beer recipe for years to come.
I made a pretty nice tasting batch, but it ended up with no fizz. Dang!
I used Kefir starter, added it to the warm concoction, shook to incorporate, distributed into my large swingtop bottles and here they sit at day 4 still with no foam, no fizz at all.
I would so love some coaching on this. Wondering if I can still salvage it particularly because I made so much of it and they were meant to be gifts. I’ll tell you where I deviated from the origonal recipe:
1) made a quadruple batch (and quadruple checked that my conversions were correct), 2) cut back a little of the cane sugar and replaced with molasses, 3) added a few drops of wintergreen essential oil as I could not locate any leaves.
Could my kefir starter be the problem? I’ve never used before, could it be dead? I used Yogourmet brand, by the way.
The link to the kefir starter is linked to a dairy kefir starter. Is this what we use? Seems odd to use dairy kefir starter in soda, so want to double check. I also saw a lot of comments regarding using water kefir grains – have you tried it with these?
I purchased everything and plan to make this tonight. I am using month old whey from my last batch of curds I made from raw milk. The whey is good for six months so it should work fine. Will experiment with fresher whey and also try it with kefir grains. I do not know what ginger bug is yet or where to find it. The honey sounds like a nice twist especially due to the additional nutrients found in raw honey.