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.
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
- 1/2 cup ginger bug (get the tutorial), fresh whey or 1 packet kefir starter culture (available here)
Instructions
- 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, 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
I love root beer and have always wanted to make my own, I have a a bbq in a few months and think root beer will go well with it so I will be using this recipe to make some for then. Thanks for the recipe.
Could you use water kefir grains? When would you add the grains? Thanks!
Megan-I haven’t done this, but based on what I’ve read elsewhere, I think you would make the concoction and allow it to cool to room temp in a canning jar, leaving plenty of air space at the top. Then put your grains in for 24 to 48 hours. Remove your grains, bottle your root beer as described above, and allow the cultures left behind to second ferment for 24 to 72 hours. The longer it ferments, the higher the alcohol content though.
How would I ferment using the Keifer starter?
thank you so much for all the work you do on your blog. you don’t post as often as many other blogs but each and every one of your posts is full of useful and interesting information. i appreciate quality more than quantity.
regarding this recipe, i’d like to make it but i have no familiarity with the flavor of most of these roots, herbs, etc. if this was a recipe for cooking, with most herbs and spices i could easily decide which flavorings could be left out but i’m at a loss here. i will need to order from mountain rose herbs and pay for international shipping so i don’t want to get anything which isn’t necessary. are there any ingredients that could be left out in a pinch? what is absolutely essential for the rootbeer flavor?
Is there any way to replace some of the sugar with stevia or xylitol? If so, how much?
No. I don’t recommend xylitol as it is not a natural sweetener. You can add stevia to the mix, if you’re using the green herb and not the white powder or liquid which are also heavily processed. Plus, the bacteria and yeasts responsible for fermentation of the root beer need sugar or fermentation will not occur.
The real trouble with xylitol here is that it is bacteriostatic. Your brew won’t ferment.. while this can be added after the fermentation process to increase the sweetness, and it truly its good for your teeth, it cannot be added til after the fermentation phase.
I went to Mountain Rose Herbs and they have a sassafras Root, Indian or Jamaican. Which one am I supposed to use?
You are referring to sarsaparilla, which is not the same herb at all. The sarsaparilla gives it a foamier head and adds additional detoxifying medicinal properties. Any smilax sp. Root on the herb market should be fine. I am also interested in hearing about any distinctions between the two. Also, it is likely that there are suitable smilax species in your area. Does anyone know if Aralias are ever used in these brews?
I’m sorry, not Sassafras but Sarsaparilla
I also need to know which Cinnamon Sticks, the Sweet or Cassia. They are sold out of some of the ingredients. Do you have a back up web site to get these ingredients from?
The flavor profile sounds very good & authentic. Thanks for the source of the hard to find ingredients. Although fermenting root beer may be the way it was first made, that creates a flavor I DON’T enjoy. Essentially, you’re making root beer flavored kombucha. Kombucha is an acquired taste. I’ll probably just marry traditional & natural flavors with a modern source of carbonation from a home soda maker.
If you don’t like the flavor of the kefir, you can use yeast. My brewer recommended champagne yeast. It will taste more like what you are used to buying at the store but the roots will be more flavorful. When you use a yeast reduce the fermentation time to one or two days at room temperature. I like to fill one plastic soda bottle as my tester. I leave all the bottles out until the plastic bottle is too tight to squeeze. Then I put all the bottles in the fridge. I was tempted to try an ale yeast but was warned that ale yeasts go too quickly through all that sugar and could cause the bottles to explode.
Hmmm … not like kombucha at all I don’t think – kombucha is fermented real black and/or green tea (Camellia sinensis) and sugar – and has an entirely different flavor profile. Sounds to me much more like a kefir with extra flavoring… or ginger beer with extra flavoring.
Dandelion Botanical Company in Seattle has an online shop.
I’ve bought ingredients for a different root beer recipe there as well as
homemade bitters.
Tenzing Mo Mo at like Place and Sugar Pill in Seattle also carry walls filled with
herbs and such.
I tried this recipe, using Body Ecology Kefir Starter and the Root Beer never fizzed. Now I wonder if I should have used Water Kefir Grains.
Definitely *DON’T* use water kefir grains as the antimicrobial properties of the herbs may negatively affect them. Ginger bug will also work very well. It’s possible that your starter was a dud (it happens, but not often with BED cultures).
Could you use water kefir as your starter (i.e. removed from the grains)?
Two questions: can honey be substituted for the sugar? and, what the heck is a “ginger bug”? Oh… wait… it, too, is made with sugar.
I’ve used honey every time I brew ginger beer and for my ginger bug starter and it works great. I’m just starting to play around with adding other various herbs and barks used in root beer to my ginger beer brew to get a sense of their individual flavors, so I can personalize my own recipe. I have also tried adding powdered ginseng with positive results. Thanks for the great list of ingredients, I’ve wanted to make root beer since I was a little boy.
The sugar is what is used for fermentation. As in other fermented drinks such as kombucha or water kefir, the sugar is eaten up during the fermentation so you do not need to be concerned that you are consuming a bunch of sugar.
I was anxious to try this recipe as it seemed to be “back to the roots” in regards to root beer. I obtained all the ingredients from my local herb shop, bought some kefir starter culture from a health food store, and finally gathered together my bottles. I fixed me some root beer and let it sit for the allotted time.
I’m not sure what this is suppose to taste like, but it was a little to “rooty” for me. By this I mean, it down-right tasted like I was drinking strained root water that has been sat out to mold.
I think I will stick to the root beer extract method. Thank you for the information regarding the origins of root beer however.
please how would i know sassafras root bark, winter green leaf, sarsaparilla root, dandelion root, hops flowers, cinnamon stick, juniper berries, birch bark, licorice root. And where can i get it? Or is there any ingredients apart of this mention above
How would you know? How would I know?
hey i want to make old fashion root beer and sell it, do u think this is a good way to mass produce it by doing it this way or just make pocket money?
Federal law disallows the use of sassafras in commercial drink production – so I wouldn’t do it.
Is there a way to adapt thus awesome recipe to have more alcohol, making it into a root BEER? I’ve been looking for a recipe like this for a long time, but in earnest the last few days. I’m interested in seeing what you have to say.
To add to Jenny’s point (posted below), when beer ferments the active yeast will consume mostly all the sugar content (save some of the more complex carbon structures) leaving you with only ethyl alcohol, C02 and other byproducts. This ‘full’ fermentation phase will leave you with a not-so-sweet beverage. Some ales will be sweeter than beer (Lager, Pilsener) due to constraints with the different varieties of yeast and the yeasts ability to withstand higher levels of alcohol.
If you wish to make any beverage with higher alcohol content you must make sure, first of all, that you have an appropriate yeast to match the desired products potential results. I would try to use a champagne yeast to accomplish this because you will end up with a higher ABV but the champagne yeast will begin to die out around 4-5%. Second, consider how sweet you would like the finished product (I assume you would want some sweetness in your root BEER) and keep in mind that you have to cut fermentation short if the sugar content begins to reash your desired flavor profile.
I intend on starting a series of test batches for a strong root beer (5-6%) and I will let you know if I have much success. I expect I will.
I made homemade root beer the start time and I used champagne yeast. My question is how do you open the bottle with out the root beer shooting out the top of the bottle even after you crack the cap to let the gas to escape ?
If you want to let the fermentation go you’ll want to do it in a container with an airlock, not in bottles. This will allow the carbon dioxide to escape instead of exploding your container. Once fermentation is complete, you will have a non-carbonated non-sweet beverage. You can kill the yeast by adding potassium metabisulfite then add some additional sugar, but with no yeast you’ll have no way to carbonate it. You would have to keg it and let pressurized CO2 do the carbonating for you. If you want to go a bit more natural, you could add some lactose to the root beer after fermentation is complete. You would need to experiment with the quantity according to taste. Lactose is milk sugar and is not fermentable so the yeasties won’t touch it. You can then add a small amount of priming sugar to the batch (3/4 cup per 5 gallons) and bottle. The yeast will eat this last little bit of fermentable sugar and do you carbonating for you.
Can you buy everything from walmart?!
seriously?
LOL charlei
If we shouldn’t use water kefir in this, what kefir starter are you suggesting? I’m only familiar with dairy and water kefirs. Would taking water already fermented with water kefir and then boiling it with the roots work? And then put it in the bottles and cover? I usually put my flavorings in my kefir after fermentation, except a bit of ginger and some fruit sometimes.
I used Frontier herbs for the recipe and man did this mixture ever turn out bitter! Ended up throwing it out. Any ideas what might have gone wrong?
I used a recipe with sassafras root that doesn’t call for fermentation, since it creates a syrupy “concentrate” that seltzer water can be added to. Check out imbibe magazine July/August issue. If not, I can post the recipe. Be forewarned that sassafras is hard to find due to the fact that it has carcinogenic properties, and yields an earthier taste than sarsaparilla, I added a vanilla bean pod to my recipe when jarring it.
Kat: Please do post up the recipe for the root beer “concentrate” – I’d love to give it a try!
Yes! I would love to try the concentrate, too. I went online and found the reference, but Imbibe doesn’t give a link to the root beer recipe.
Yes Kat….I would like to check out that recipe too. Thanks!!
Kat, please post the recipe from Imbibe magazine! thanks thanks.
Just made some of this, minus wintergreen, cherry and birch bark as I couldn’t get them. I tasted the mix before the kefir and it was pretty good I think the only bitter was the hops which I don’t mind and can only add to the finished product. I just had a question of how you know it is working? Is it supposed to bubble a little or look malty? I’m on the second day and I want to make another batch, 4 bottles is not enough! But just wondering how I know if I did it right as my attempts at making booze are decent but I can never get yogurt to set lol
I don’t like sugar at all. What is the absolute minimum amount of sugar needed for fermentation? How does beer ferment without sugar? The entire reason I want to make homemade soda is because all the ones available in the health food stores are way too sweet for me. So when I saw your response to another commenter about it needing sugar I was SO BUMMED!!!
Beer ferments without sugar because the wheat/barley/malt that goes into beer is full of naturally occurring sugars which support fermentation; herbs are not similarly full of sugars, so you need to support fermentation by adding a sugar source. If you don’t like it too sweet – you can start with half as much, or ferment it longer and the microbes will eat all the sugar.
I’m the founder/moderator for Punk Domestics (www.punkdomestics.com), a community site for those of use obsessed with, er, interested in DIY food. It’s sort of like Tastespotting, but specific to the niche. I’d love for you to submit this to the site. Good stuff!
Thank you for the recipe. I didn’t like the final result at all. It did not taste like root beer, it tasted like a weird, old tonic. It was bitter and too sweet at the same time.
I was in mid-process of making this root beer, when I noticed that the dandelion root and cinnamon stick listed as ingredients are not listed in any of the preparation directions… I just added them in with the other roots and things in step one. Just wanting to make sure that’s right (maybe update the directions). Thank you.
Thank you for the wonderful information. Now I am wondering how long can the root beer be stored? And if the root beer is removed from the fridge after the 2 days, will it ferment further or will the cold spell stop fermentation?
I want to use my raw sugar cane juice as a replacement for the sugar and ginger bug because the juice comes with its own lactic acid. Have you ever tried anything like this?
Hi Jenny, I tried a batch of root beer using a commercial root beer extract, so I have some champagne yeast at home and want to try your recipe using the yeast. When and how would I add the yeast to your recipe? Thanks!
Hi Michelle , did you ever get an answer to your question about using champagne yeast.
No, I never did. By now I’ve gone ahead and used it (the champagne yeast) and it seemed to work fine. I have been trying different combinations of the herbs/roots, some batches have been more successful than others.
does the yeast and the hops make it alcoholic?? I cannot drink beer or wine or any alcoholic beverage but I noticed i’m seeing things that I would typically see in actual beers instead of the yummy nonalcoholic rootbeer everyone loves. So is this a legit Beer recipe or a yummy homemade version of the rootbeer we all love?
Old sodas and root beers were made the same way that beers were, but the difference is that they are fermented for a shorter period of time so the amount of alcohol they might produce is so negligible they would be considered non-alcoholic by any standards. These drinks are made this way though because they began as health tonics and as drinks to replace non-potable water – which is the same reason beer, wine, and other drinks were consumed more often than water back when filters and purification was a bit more tedious, difficult, or non-existent.
Hello, I would like to know about the last ingredient in the list. What is “ginger bug”? We are a vegan family and don’t want to use Kiffer. Hoping “ginger bug” is something I can find easily and is vegan! Thanks!
ginger bug is made with ginger root and sugar that is allowed to ferment a little.
but as with all vegetation, animals have fertilized the plant and thus it would not be truly vegan, using animal byproducts and products to produce the end ingredient.
The kefir referred to here is water kefir (tibicos) – not the same as milk kefir, and does not contain any dairy or animal products.
In the 80′s i was in Maine for a Master Gardeners conference and went to the Organic Festival they have every summer.
? I think it is called Common Grounds Organic festival or some thing like that………. Well…. I had the best Birch Beer homemade by a family there it was awesome. I asked for the recipe and was told it was a family heirloom….. I am still looking for the old fashion birch beer recipe…. Any one know of one??
Thank you for the auspicious writeup. It in fact was a amusement account it.
Look advanced to more added agreeable from you! However, how could we communicate?
I keep reading that sassafrass is poisonous…can you help with that? I don’t want to make my family sick.
Sassafras is not necessarily “poisonous”, as stated in the story before the recipe I believe, it contains safrole, an oil which is a carcinogen (cancer causing agent), but it would only affect humans if you drank 32 12oz servings a day. Also, basil and cinnamon contain safrole as well, but are not banned by the FDA like sassafras. So the minimal amounts of sassafras used in this recipe would almost surely be harmless. Although, if you like store bought root beer, wintergreen is the main flavor in today’s root beer., so omitting sassafras from your recipe you use would be okay if that is the flavor profile you are aiming for.
Agreed with some others here — very bitter, “rooty” (but not in a good way), effectively undrinkable taste. I make many kinds of soda and brew beer, so I’m familiar with these ingredients and the process, but my lady and I really found this recipe quite undesirable. As a lover of craft drink making, I am thinking about ways to modify to make better, but really in the end I’ll end up changing the recipe so much that it wouldn’t be this. Lots of other great recipes out there. Have others had success with and enjoyed this one?
Hello,
It doesn’t seem like it was too long ago that the recipes provided by Nourished Kitchen allowed creating a PDF for them. Is this option still possible? I’m not a user of Pinterest or other options and I miss having the so many of the recipes.
You mention ‘hops’ in the instructions…but the word-”hops”
is NOT on your list of ingredients…
Did I miss something?
Hops have antimicrobial properties, especially against Gram positive organisms. The lactic acid bacteria (LAB) that are so desirable in a ginger bug and kefir grains are Gram positive and are subject to the antimicrobial properties of hops (a major benefit to brewing in earlier, less sanitary times). So, the hops are good if you’re brewing with just yeast, but leave them out if relying on any semi-defined culture (which ideally contains the beneficial Gram positive LAB).
Regarding an earlier note- hops do not create alcohol . They are flowers that add bitterness, flavor, aroma, and stability to beer or any other beverage. However, hops do not have antimicrobial activity against yeast, which can produce alcohol and CO2 in anaerobic conditions.
Modifying this recipe to make it drinkable is pretty easy. The Wild Cherry and Licorice roots are what give an overly “herby” taste. Whereas Sassafras and Sasparilla give that wonderful taste we are all used to.
My advice is to double the amounts of those two ingredients and halve the others and let ferment (I use a ginger bug) for 3-4 days, agitating twice per day, then bottle and refrigerate for a few more. The result is supremely quaffable.
If you want A&W this is not the recipe for you my a long shot.
can’t wait to try it… Thanks for the recipe!
The above article says to open your bottles of Root Beer over the sink. I prefer to set the bottle in a large bowl, then I can pour it into a glass and drink it instead of losing down the drain. I’m going to try a batch, using whey. I’v always got some yogurt hanging around that I can strain through a cheesecloth and use the whey from it. Ginger bugs take a week to make and are subject to becoming moldy, and keeping Kefir grains alive has been a challenge for met. I use empty, plastic, screw top, brown kombucha bottles with good results, but under pressure, you need to have a pair of small channellocks or pliers to open them, especially if you have arthritis in your hands. Bail-top beer bottles are also nice if you have the $$$$ to buy them or if you are a beer drinker and can re-use them. Check garage sales! One caution about 1 gallon, glass jugs. Call the manufacturer before buying them and make sure they are lead-free. I was stunned when I looked it up and found out how fast lead begins contaminating beverages and home canned foods. NEVER buy any glass container that you will be using for food or beverages that you do not know is lead-free. Sometimes it may be worth it to buy that gallon jug of pickles and olives just so you know that the jug is lead-free. Leaded glass is outlawed as commercial containers for foods and beverages. Only buy the Ball and Kerr canning jars that are made in the USA. A Canadian company bought out both jar companies and they are having their glass canning jars made at various places, all over the world. ONLY the ones made in the U.S.A. are lead-free. The ones made for freezing have thicker glass, so I recommend those. Also, when I making Kombucha. I use my 1.75 liter electric kettle to boil my water, as I have reverse osmosis water at my tap, so I do not need it to boil for twenty minutes to dissipate impurities. I use two jugs, one for sugar water, just shy of 1/2 of a gallon, and then I make my 1/2 gallon of tea in the other so they cool faster. Make each one, one cup shy of 1/2 gallon so you have form for your scoby and 2 cups of starter liquid. When cool, strain the tea from the leaves, into the sugar water and add the scoby and starter and you’re done. Great shortcut if you have filtered or distilled water. Electric tea kettles are worth their weight in gold for boiling water for almost anything, fast.