Root Beer Batch 1.0

Lately I've been working on brewing root beer at home. Other people have made simple instructions involving a 2L pop bottle, but haven't calibrated their instruments, so I chose to use their method as a basic layout for mine. My end goal is to make a root beer with excellent taste on a small budget.

For my containers, I'll be using 2500 mL poly coated bottles from work. Rather than throwing them away, so I voluntarily recycled them :)

My sugar will be simple cane sugar from the local grocery store, yeast will be Danstar Nottingham beer yeast, extract will be a mix of Zatarain's & McCormick's root beer extract. Danstar seems to have a better taste than bread yeast. I add the McCormick's because I don't like the strength of the wintergreen taste in Zatarain's. Water will be "reverse osmosis" (RO) water, but for this first batch, it will be our wonderful city water. However, judging by our recent water quality report, their water is quite clean!

The measurements are a bit antiquated, but I'll convert to metric later on...

In a 2.5L bottle calibrated to 10 cups, add in order:
-10 oz cane sugar (1 oz per cup final volume)
-1 1/2 tsp Zatarain's Root Beer Extract (1/4 tsp total extract per cup final volume)
-1 tsp McCormick's Root Beer Extract
-1/4 tsp beer yeast. (I like to proof the yeast first)

-Dilute to volume with a clean lukewarm water, preferably RO water.

Set time:

-Cap tightly and mix until all the sugar is dissolved.
-Place in a dark environment ~ 70-75 Fahrenheit (I use a paper bag)
-Let set 5-7 days.


I'll let you know how it turned out in a week.