There’s an old-fashioned charm to homemade root beer with its odd array of roots and bark, flowers, leaves and berries. Fortunately, this old-fashioned herbal root beer recipe is easy to make at home.
You’ll need aromatic herbs, a little bit of sugar and a starter culture like ginger bug or kombucha. And within a few days you’ll have a naturally fizzy, bubbly brew.
Jump to Recipe | What is it? | Herbs | Safety | Brewing Tips
What is root beer?
Root beer is a distinctly American drink with a sweet, herbal flavor that’s been made since the colonial era. Traditionally, brewers made the drink by fermenting an herbal decoction made with sassafras bark, sarsaparilla root and other herbs with sugar and yeast to make a naturally bubbly, probiotic soft drink.
In the 20th century, the traditional herbal recipe fell from favor, and soft drink manufacturers began making it with artificial flavors. Moreover, they stopped culturing root beer and, instead, carbonated it.
Herbs for Homemade Root Beer
While most home brewers make their root beers from artificially flavored root beer extracts, there’s a certain undeniable charm of brewing root beer the traditional way. Slowly simmering a decoction of roots, bark and spices, adding a touch of sugar, and then stirring in a starter.
Then all you have to do is bottle the brew and wait for those beneficial bacteria and yeast to do their work.
Sassafras, sarsaparilla, ginger root and birch all give the brew its distinctive flavor, but without the additives.
- Sassafras gives root beer its distinctive, slightly mint-like flavor. And it’s traditionally used to purify the blood in folk medicine (1).
- Sarsaparilla is traditionally used as a renal tonic and for the complexion (2)
- Ginger gives this root beer recipe a rich, fiery note. Herbalists use ginger to support cardiovascular and metabolic health, as well as for nausea and stomach upset. (3)
- Licorice gives the recipe a subtle, anise-like sweetness that pairs well with sassafras. Licorice also supports adrenal health (4), and may be helpful in addressing hormonal imbalance in women (5).
- Dandelion Root adds the subtlest bitter note to the brew. Dandelion root also supports liver health (6).
How to Source Your Herbs: You can buy organic and ethically wildcrafted herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs.
How to Make Root Beer
There’s three basic steps to making homemade root beer. First, you’ll start by making an herbal decoction by simmering the herbs in water until they release their aromatic compounds and other constituents. Then you’ll sweeten the brew and add a starter culture, so that it ferments. Lastly, you’ll bottle the root beer and let it culture.
As it ferments, all the microbes in your starter culture will consume the sweetener. As a result, your root beer will be fizz and bubble. And it’s a great source of probiotics, too.
Brewing Tips
Homemade root beer is easy to make, and is just about as simple as boiling water or making tea. But, there’s a few things to keep in mind as you make this recipe.
- Start with cold water. Tossing herbs straight into hot water may cause proteins in the herbs to seize, preventing the full release of their aromatic compounds and phytonutrients. Cold water eases this process.
- Add the sassafras last. While most woody herbs need time to release their flavor, sassafras is deeply aromatic and its aroma dissipates quickly with prolonged cooking. So toss it into the pot toward the end of simmering for best flavor.
- Switch up the sweetener. This root beer recipe uses unrefined cane sugar, but you can you can also try maple syrup, maple sugar, coconut sugar and honey. Just make sure you use a caloric sweetener so that the root beer ferments.
- Add your starter only once the herbal mixture cools. If you add your starter to the hot herbal decoction, the heat will kill the wild bacteria and yeasts. So add the culture only when the decoction cools to room temperature.
- Use flip-top bottles. Flip-top bottles effectively capture all the carbon dioxide that builds up during fermentation – which means a fizzy brew for you.
- Pay attention to temperature in your kitchen. Homemade root beer will ferment faster in a warm kitchen, and more slowly in a cold one.
Root Beer Recipe
Ingredients
- 10 cups water
- 3 tablespoons sarsaparilla root
- 1 tablespoon ginger root
- 1 tablespoon licorice root
- 2 teaspoons dandelion root
- 2 teaspoons birch bark
- 1 star anise pods
- ¼ cup sassafras root bark
- ¾ cup unrefined cane sugar
- ½ cup ginger bug (strained)
Equipment
Instructions
- Fill a large stock pot with 10 cups water, and then spoon in the sarsaparilla, ginger, licorice, dandelion, birch, and star anise.
- Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then turn down the heat to medium-low. Simmer for 30 minutes, and then stir in the sassafras bark, and continue simmering a further 15 minutes.
- Turn off the heat, stir in the sugar until it dissolves. Next, allow the decoction to cool to room temperature – about 2 hours.
- Strain decoction, discarding the herbs. Stir in the ginger bug, and pour into flip-top bottles – allowing at least 1 to 2 inches of headspace in each bottle.
- Ferment the root beer at room temperature about 2 days, allowing more time during cold weather. Transfer to the fridge for 3 days to allow the bubbles to set, and serve cold over ice.
Notes
The Safrole Controversy
Sassafras is the dominant flavor in traditional root beer recipes. It also contains safrole, a naturally occurring polyphenol that you can also find in nutmeg, cinnamon and other herbs.
In the 1960s, a study conducted on lab animals implicated safrole in liver damage. 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.
As a result, wintergreen came to replace sassafras in commercial root beer recipes.
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 (7-10).
And the small amounts of safrole in your homemade root beer are likely just fine.
Try these other fermented drinks next:
Citations and Resources
1-4) Fleming, T., et al. (ed) (2000) The Physician’s Desk Reference for Herbal Medicine. Medical Economics Company.
5) Armanini, D., et al. (2004) Licorice reduces serum testosterone in healthy women. Steroids.
6) Liangliang, C., et al. (2017) Purification, Preliminary Characterization and Hepatoprotective Effects of Polysaccharides from Dandelion Root. Molecules.
7. Yu, et al. (2011) Safrole induces cell death in human tongue squamous cancer SCC-4 cells through mitochondria-dependent caspase activation cascade apoptotic signaling pathways. Environmental Toxicology.
8. Yu, et al. (2011) Safrole induces apoptosis in human oral cancer HSC-3 cells. Journal of Dental Research.
9. Du, et al. (2006) Safrole oxide induces apoptosis by up-regulating Fas and FasL instead of integrin beta4 in A549 human lung cancer cells. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry.
10 Chang, et al. (2006) Safrole-induced Ca2+ mobilization and cytotoxicity in human PC3 prostate cancer cells. Journal of Receptor & Signal Transduction Research.
jennette says
I made this with my daughter in the fall, we had a great time foraging for some of the ingredients. The ginger starter was so easy to prepare and everything tasted fantastic!
Gwendalin says
This root beer recipe was the best thing I’ve ever made my kids and I loved it.
Joshua says
Hello Jennie. I was wondering, is this an alcoholic root beer? My family and I want to make root beer but I have three little children and my wife and I do not drink alcohol. I noticed in the description that you mentioned fermentation several times. Just looking for clarification? If this is an alcoholic drink, do you have a recipe for root beer that is non-alcoholic?
Thanks
Jenny says
Hi Joshua!
Fermented drinks contain about .5-1% alcohol by volume. For perspective, this is about as much as you’ll find in ripe fruit. Historically, these lightly fermented drinks were given to children (and I give them to my own children – including small amounts to my 2 year old). Lightly fermented drinks were also considered “temperance” drinks in old cookbooks. Currently, lightly fermented small beers are given to schoolchildren in Belgium and other places in Western Europe.
But, if you want a completely alcohol-free version, you could turn the decoction into a simple syrup by boiling it down with sugar, and then you could add sparkling water back to the simple syrup. Of course, you’d lose all the benefits of probiotics in the process.
Judy says
With all the fermenting soda that I’ve been making lately, I find that using a ginger bug for all of them is the best bet! Skip the kiefers Etc!
Jennie Beardsley says
Can I use Dandelion roots dug from our property, washed, peeled and ground and get same results? Also, can I use bark from local Birch trees, washed and ground? Is it the bark slightly under the top layer that’s what to use? Actually in both cases since they’re getting steeped, would it be better to not grind and just use hunks? We don’t use any chemicals at all on our property. I’m so excited to make this for my family! Thanks, Jennie B.
P.S.: I immediately began wondering about that study, thanks so much for addressing it and allaying my fears.
Jenny says
Hi Jennie! How lucky are you that you have all those resources nearby! Yes, you can use dandelion roots. And here’s info on harvesting bark: https://theherbalacademy.com/harvest-bark-correctly/. The herbs I use are dried, and coarsely chopped. I’d recommend avoiding powdered herbs as they’ll leave a sediment in your root beer.
Jennie Beardsley says
Thank you!
Andrea says
This was very close to the flavor I was looking for. I believe I will leave the dandelion root out of the next batch and see if that solidifies it for me.
Thank you for sharing this. This was the closest to what I remember my great grandmother making many moons ago.
I used water kefir and it got some beautiful fizz!
Jess K says
I LOVE that you put such fascinating folklore and history into this recipe post! My grandfather used to make his own root beer and my mother told my sisters and I childhood stories of hearing spontaneous poppings and explosions heard up in the attic (from forgotten bottles that just couldn’t keep their tops on!)
I learned first-hand this past winter that the bark of sweet birch trees, when a thin branch is broken off, gives off a potent wintergreen aroma! Woodsmen would chew the twigs or brew overnight wintergreen tea during the cold months of the year. But alas, the volatile oils in both birch bark and wintergreen leaves (which I have also chewed while hiking, along with birchbark) are delicate and very easily lost. This is why it is difficult to find wild harvested wintergreen for sale – it simply can’t hold onto that elusive flavor for long! Intense heat will also cause the volatile oils to dissipate as well. I bet a great substitute for the wintergreen leaves would be the addition of sweet birch bark tea. To brew some yourself, just look for “overnight steeped” recipes online… they are delicious and successfully capture the fragrance. I cannot wait to start collecting ingredients to try this recipe – you never cease to amaze me with your inspiration and cleverly researched ideas! Happy brewing and “May the forest be with you!”
Mark says
This was delicious! This tasted just like the homemade root beer we would purchase as kids when our parents took us to the local “Old Settlers Days” Rendezvous. A small company called “Bud’s Homemade Root Beer” out of Alton, IL made batches that tasted just like this, except they sold it non-carbonated. Your recipe is exactly spot on with theirs! You don’t understand how happy you have made me. Thank you so much for providing this recipe!
kyle says
We tried your root beer recipe. But it seems to have a bitter aftertaste, maybe a bark taste We can’t really tell what it is because we don’t know what the herbs taste like. Any help would be appreciated.
Kate says
Traditional root beer was often a bitter brew. Earlier tastes were different from modern tastes which are addicted to “sweet” The sassafras, sasaparilla, licorice root, dandelion root, were chosen for their medicinal properties. If you don’t like the recipe as is adjust the ingredient by reducing and/or reducing the bitter herbs. Local brews substituted ingredients based on what was available to the brewer, sch as dried sweet woodruff for vanilla bean (expensive and hard to get) or wintergreen leaf for birch bark (same flavor- grows different places) anise seed for licorice root – same flavor but not same medicinal properties. Taste the decoction (during cooling – before fermenting) and play with the recipe and make it your.