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.

Post # 1

I keep deleting and retyping this post. Which is really funny because no one knows this blog exists and most likely no one will read it. Scott and I (Janelle)started this blog to be a landing place of all things we find interesting. This pretty much means it will center around food.


I love cooking and earning a degree in food science only increased the geeky side of my food love. Scott is a chemist who enjoys trying new food and perfecting recipes such as his winter chili. We tend to take pictures of our food when out on a date instead of taking pictures of each other. Go figure. I'm sure this blog will not be solely devoted to food but it will probably take up the most room :-) We think it would be neat to some day start up a small bakery but that is a scary thought because the start up cost is high and there is no guarantee of success or even of earning back your start-up costs. So for now we will enjoy small culinary adventures in our own apartment kitchen. Some of the food adventure 'projects' we are currently working on are:

-- Naturally carbonated rootbeer (carbonation through fermentation)
-- Yogurt
-- Kombucha

apparently fermentation is a current topic of interest :-)

I hope to make a batch of yogurt tonight or tomorrow and perhaps I will actually remember to take some picture that I can post of the process. So until I have yogurt pictures, I bid you all Adieu.

--Janelle