ROOT BEER

Whenever I drove through the Amish area around Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I would stop at stands on the side of the road to sample delicious home-made root beer.  

I have always wanted to try to duplicate that great taste, but I got caught up with wine and regular beer making and forgot about it... until a week ago.

I found some root beer extract in a closet and decided that it was time to experiment.  The recipe called for over four gallons of water and I don't own any container that big.  (If I did, I might be tempted to steam a dozen crabs.) 

I adjusted the recipe so that I only could use one gallon of water and lowered the sugar intake. I also decided to add some class to the concoction by using wine yeast instead of the usual kitchen stuff.

The resulting "stew" filled my only eight empty beer bottles. I capped them by hand... not good to do.  They were starting to overflow and squeeze fluid out of the tops.

Luckily, during a basement inventory walk. I found my old bottle capper.  Now I needed to get some caps to cap.  Helper Kathy remembered seeing a box of them in the garage. Now I could do the capping job properly.

If the bottles don't explode, next Thursday I will put the bottles into the refrigerator to get them nice and cold and ready to sample.

If this all turns out successfully and the root beer tastes good, I will let you know. Otherwise, you won't hear from me.

When my ancestors moved across the bay from Provincetown to Plymouth to get better water for their "keg beer," the friendly Indians showed them how they made tasty brews from herbs and bark.   

Pharmacist Elmer Hires remembered that in 1875 when he concocted a tasty drink for the Columbian Exposition in 1876. It was made mostly from the bark of the sassafras tree and was misnamed Root Beer.

True root beer is caffeine free, naturally carbonated, very sweet, and non-alcoholic (2%). It was a big hit during Prohibition when some folks would add alcohol to it.  My Grandfather drank embalming fluid during that time. I wonder if he added it to root beer first.

By the way, if my yeast doesn't work completely, I will add a raisin to each bottle, to wake it up as I had to do with one batch of beer that I made many years ago. Unfortunately, the beer was in weak green bottles that exploded. (A story for another time.)

One of our neighbors had a dog named "Root Beer," I have always wondered why. Any ideas?

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Go, and enjoy some home-made soda.