Back a year or two ago I got the bright idea to try to make some cream soda.  I really like cream soda–particularly IBC Cream Soda–but we didn’t have the money to buy it regularly. Not to be deterred, I set out on Google in search of cream soda recipes; my philosophy has always been that if it can be bought at the store, it can probably be made at home.  When it came to cream soda, I was right.

The cream soda recipes I found were all fairly similar: vanilla extract, water, and sugar were the basic ingredients.  A little yeast added to the cream soda will carbonate it after a few days.  All that was left to do after that was chill the soda, and enjoy it (I thought).

I made a few mistakes. OK, I made several.  First I didn’t let the yeast do its thing long enough. When yeast is added to a sugary mixture, it devours the sugar and produces CO2–carbonation.  You’re supposed to leave the uncarbonated soda-yeast concoction in a dark closet for 48 hours to get the right amount of CO2.  I didn’t do that.  I left it for about 24 hours.  The result was a very flat soda.  I also didn’t use enough vanilla extract. Vanilla extract was the primary flavoring agent in the cream soda recipe I followed.  Going the cheapskate route, I failed to use enough vanilla extract–and the extract I did use was a watered-down off-brand product that didn’t have enough flavor.

When it was all said and done, I wound up with a semi-carbonated beverage that tasted more like yeast than cream soda.

Discouraged, I shelved my pursuit of homemade soft drinks until a few weeks ago.  Martha and I were picking up a bottle of vanilla extract at Walmart when another bottle caught my eye: A bottle of root beer extract.

Root beer is great. I’m a little picky about my brands, but I enjoy a good bottle of root beer every once in a while.  Intrigued, I picked up the bottle of extract, determining to buy it.

The recipe on the side of the container called for 1.5 teaspoons of extract, a cup or so of sugar dissolved in water, and a liter of carbonated water–that is, water that already has CO2 in it, also known as seltzer water.  I didn’t have any seltzer water handy, but I knew how to carbonate the root beer the old fashion way: Using bread yeast.

Anyway, this past week I finally got around to making a couple of bottles of the stuff, and I have to say the result was quite impressive (although I did make a few mistakes).  I’ll post a recipe soon, but before I do that, I wanted to explain a little bit about root beer and why making it at home is so simple.

Root Beer = Root Tea

Root beer in its oldest form was that of a tea brewed from sassafras root.  However, sassafras root was declared carcinogenic (meaning it causes cancer, just like cigarette smoke and sunlight) some years ago, and was banned from the market.  Today, most root beer extracts use artificial sassafras flavoring.

Root beer usually has other ingredients mixed with the sassafras to give it more flavor.  In addition to the extract and sugar, I also added sorghum molasses and a little bit of honey.  Many people also use a variety of spices.  At the end of the day however, root beer is really just a type of spiced tea–we just don’t usually think of it that way.

Carbonation via Fermentation

Fermentation is by far the oldest means of carbonating something.  As a beverage ferments, the yeasts present in it devour sugar, converting it into alcohol and CO2.  What separates root beer from beer-beer is that root beer ferments for only a few days as opposed to several weeks.

Now, just so we’re clear: No mainstream root beer bottler I’m aware of carbonates their root beer by fermentation anymore.  If you don’t refrigerate a bottle of fermenting root beer within about 48 hours of adding yeast to it, the CO2 in the bottle will rise to unsafe levels.

A bottle that has fermented for a few days will foam when opened; a bottle left unattended altogether–like on the shelf of a grocery store–will eventually explode from all the gases building inside it.  That’s why modern bottlers use CO2 tablets or seltzer machines to carbonate their water before mixing it with root beer extract, and that’s why store-bought root beer does not have any hint of a “yeasty” flavor.

So let’s be clear: If you carbonate your root beer the cheaper, old fashion way, you need to pay attention to the root beer.  Don’t let it ferment too long, or you could end up with exploding bottles.

You Said ‘Fermentation’; Does Root Beer Have Alcohol in it?

People have been asking this question literally since root beer was invented way back when.  The answer is “technically, yes.”

Root beer carbonated by the fermentation method will have an alcohol level of about 0.25%-0.5%.  By comparison, this is about the same amount of alcohol you’ll find in a loaf of bread (yes, bread rises due to CO2 released as the bread yeast ferments in the uncooked dough).

So while there might be alcohol present in the root beer, it is a minuscule amount at best.

Conclusion

So let’s bring it all together: Root beer is, essentially, a mixture of flavorings and sweeteners that is slightly fermented to bring about its bubbly carbonated goodness.  That’s it!  It’s a very simple, very tasty beverage.

By my estimation, one $5 bottle of root beer extract should yield about 3-5 gallons of root beer, depending on how strong you like your beverage. What’s even better is that it tastes good!

I’ll post the full recipe very soon–after I’ve tested a few minor adjustments.  For now, however, that’s the basic theory behind making root beer at home.

So if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you can go pick up a bottle of extract and do a little searching on eHow and Instructables to see how other folks have made root beer at home.

Filed under: Recipes

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