Homemade Root Beer Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret ingredient in root beer? ›

The main ingredients in root beer are pretty much the same as any other soda: water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel coloring, and flavoring, both natural and artificial. However, root beer's unique flavor comes from sassafras, a tree root native to the United States.

One traditional recipe for making root beer involves cooking a syrup from molasses and water, letting the syrup cool for three hours, and combining it with the root ingredients (including sassafras root, sassafras bark, and wintergreen).

A neutral ale yeast, like Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) are generally recommended. “From my beer-making experience I'd say you want a low attenuation, low temperature tolerant yeast so it doesn't have a lot of impact on the flavor,” Indrehus says.

In 1870, an unknown pharmacist toying with a handful of roots, berries and herbs, came up with a recipe for root beer which consisted of juniper, wintergreen, spikenard, pipsissewa, sarsaparilla, vanilla beans, hops, dog grass, birch bark and licorice.

Throughout history, many indigenous tribes of North America created their own root beverages using locally grown roots, barks, herbs and spices. These pre-colonial drinks were heavily focused on the sarsaparilla root and sassafras tree, which are native to North and South America.

Some describe root beer as an 'adulterated sarsaparilla' because it contains a mix of flavour enhancing ingredients. Most brewers choose to add vanilla, wintergreen, liquorice root, nutmeg, acacia, anise, molasses, cinnamon, clove or honey to their recipes.

Safrole was found to contribute to liver cancer in rats when given in high doses, and thus it and sassafras or sarsaparilla-containing products were banned.

The modern versions of root beer and sarsaparilla are nearly identical, the difference lies in the combination of ingredients and brewing technique. Each brand has a unique combination of ingredients and techniques to ensure a satisfying sip.

Dr Pepper is not a root beer. It's not an apple, it's not an orange, it's not a strawberry, it's not a root beer, it's not even a cola. It is a drink with a unique blend of 23 natural and artificial flavours. What does Dr Pepper taste like?

From the fermentation process, the root beer contains between 0.35 and 0.5 % alcohol. Comparing this to the 6% in many beers, it would require a person to drink about a gallon and a half of this root beer to be equivalent to one 12 ounce beer.

Why is sugar necessary to make root beer? ›

I use a mix of brown sugar and molasses for caramelly flavor with a touch of bitterness. Sugar is necessary here — it is the food for the yeast, which will carbonate the soda.

The easiest way to carbonate your root beer syrup is by mixing in carbonated water! You can either buy the fizzy water at the store, or if you have a Sodastream or Drinkmate just use that. Pour your root beer syrup through the funnel into the keg, and fill with cool tap water leaving at least 4 inches of head space.

After it was banned by the FDA in 1960, you could still buy root beer, but it was often made with sarsaparilla or artificial flavor instead of sassafras. Likewise, when you buy commercially produced sassafras oil for culinary use, it usually contains little or no safrole.

Sarsaparilla was made from the Sarsaparilla vine, while Root Beer, roots of the sassafras tree. These days, Root Beer recipes do not include sassafras as the plant has been found to cause serious health issues.

You won't find it in your can of IBC these days, however, as sassafras oil (safrole) is now banned for commercial use in America due to evidence that it might be carcinogenic. Many of the root beers of today still taste like sassafras, however, from artificial sassafras flavoring or extracts without safrole.

People used to drink sassafras tea. However, sassafras tea contains a high concentration of safrole, which was about 4.5 times the permissible dose. Thus, in 1976, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the sales of sassafras tea. Moreover, the FDA prohibited the use of sassafras as food additives.

Sarsaparilla was made from the Sarsaparilla vine, while Root Beer, roots of the sassafras tree. These days, Root Beer recipes do not include sassafras as the plant has been found to cause serious health issues.

There are a number of botanical extractives that go into various root beers, from molasses, dandelion, burdock and anise roots, along with sarsaparilla, birch, cinnamon or (usually artificial now) sassafras. It is the amount of wintergreen that lends some of the most distinctiveness to many of the mainstream brands.