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Water, as you know, was not always of good quality, people had to look for alternatives. Fermented milk products, weak beer, cider, perry, kvass and other fermented drinks, which store better and are healthier, became the basis of the diet of many peoples and were given even to small children. In North America, that drink has always been and still is a root beer, a root beer that can and, for some reason, should be made at home. We’ll tell you how!
Root beer (from the English. Root beer, “root beer”) is a sweet soft drink popular in North America, which is traditionally made from the root of the sassafras tree (Sassafras albidum) and / or the bark of the root of smilax (Smilax ornata, Smilax regelii, Smilax glyciphylla) as the main flavoring ingredients. In practice, this is a very useful and interesting drink for mixology, which is part of many cocktails, and is also an important component of traditional American cuisine. By the way, beer is a root beer conditionally – the strength of the alcoholic version of the drink rarely exceeds 1%.
DOSSIER
Сассафрас (Sassafras albidum)
A tree common in the eastern United States, all parts of which have been and continue to be used by locals for culinary and medicinal purposes. It has a very memorable aroma, which is considered akin to the smell of cinnamon. The essential oil of sassafras, which is banned in most countries of the world due to the dominant composition of safrole (used to produce “ecstasy”), is recommended as an analgesic, diaphoretic and antirheumatic agent. On the territory of the CIS, it grows in the parks of Sukhumi.
Smilax (Smilax, Sassaparilla)
A woody vine with evergreen leaves, native to Central and South America. The root of this plant has blood-purifying and anti-inflammatory properties, and is used to treat skin diseases, liver diseases, rheumatism, and gout. Improves digestion. It was first described in the book of the chronicler Cies de Leon P. “Chronicles of Peru” of 1553, including as a cure for syphilis. Sassaparilla grows on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, including in the vicinity of Sochi and in Abkhazia.
Among the ingredients of early and traditional root beer, one could find: allspice, birch bark, coriander, juniper berries, ginger root, wintergreen leaves, hop cones, burdock root, dandelion root, nard, cuminus umbrella (often used by producers of root beer instead of sassafras), guaiac tree chips, smilax root, myrtle, wild cherry bark, curly sorrel, American zanthoxylum bark, vanilla beans, licorice root, molasses and, of course, sassafras root. To prepare root beer, the so-called “root tea” is first prepared, that is, a decoction of all ingredients, after which this decoction is sweetened with sugar and / or molasses, and then fermented with yeast or lactic acid bacteria (at home, “root beer syrup” is often simply diluted with soda , but a fermented drink is much healthier).
Today root beer is not the same. Due to the FDA ban (read about this funny story below) on the commercial use of sassafras, modern mass market root beer is a mixture of water, sugar and artificial sassafras flavor, supplemented with a host of other ingredients. Yucca root extract, quillaya soap, or soy protein are added to commercial root beer to give a thick head. Fortunately, making a real, traditional root beer at home is much easier than finding an acceptable copy of this drink in the post-Soviet space. And as for the expediency of this action (sassafras root, by the way, you can buy it without problems in Runet, but the price will not please you), judge for yourself – we can only offer a good, time-tested recipe!
Recently, we already offered a recipe for root beer, more precisely root beer schnapps – look for it in recipes for beer liqueurs. Remove the vodka from there and ferment the resulting syrup with yeast or lactic acid bacteria to obtain a real root beer.
Recipe for a real root beer (root beer)
A traditional root beer recipe with detailed brewing techniques and great variability.
A type soft drink
Kitchen americana
Prepare 10 minutes
Cooking 1 hour
Total 1 hour 10 minutes
Portions 3 л
Ingredients
- 25-30 г sassafras root (dried, chopped)
- 2 Art. l. smilax root bark (sarsaparilla) (dried, crushed)
- 1 Art. l. burdock root (dried, chopped)
- 12 cm licorice root (crushed)
- 1 stick cinnamon (length 7cm)
- 1 pod vanilla
- 3 asterisks star anise (crushed)
- 2 strips orange peel (0,3×6-10 cm)
- 300-400 г cane brown sugar
- 1 Art. l. confectionery cane molasses
- 2,8-3 л clean water
- 1/8 h. l. brewer’s yeast for ale
Instructions
Slice the vanilla lengthwise and transfer to a medium saucepan. Add all the roots and spices, pour 1,8 liters of clean water. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Add sugar, molasses and orange zest, mix vigorously. Let simmer for another 10 minutes, stirring frequently until the sugar and molasses are completely dissolved. Remove the root beer syrup from the heat and let it steep for 30 minutes.
Strain the syrup through a sieve or several layers of gauze into a glass container of a suitable volume, add the rest of the water. While the workpiece is cooling down to a temperature acceptable for yeast to work (about 23-25 degrees), rehydrate the yeast according to the instructions on the package: mix 1/8 tsp. yeast and 60 ml of warm water, wait 5-15 minutes. When the syrup has cooled to the desired temperature, add prepared yeast to it, mix and proceed to carbonization.
Pour the almost ready root beer into sterilized glass or plastic bottles, leaving about 3 cm of free space at the top. Close the bottles tightly and leave at room temperature for 36-48 hours.
Open test bottle (read recipe notes). If the level of carbonation is to your liking, transfer all bottles to the refrigerator to stop fermentation, where the root beer should spend at least 2 days before tasting. If there is not enough carbon dioxide, then the bottles can be kept warm for another 12-24 hours, and then put in the refrigerator. In this form, root beer can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 month or more.
You can drink ready-made root beer chilled in its pure form, as part of cocktails or flavor vanilla ice cream with it – very tasty!
Field notes
- In the recipe for root beer syrup, you can choose to include: 30 g of wintergreen leaves, 1 tbsp. l. chopped birch bark, 1 tbsp. l. minced fresh ginger root, 1 tbsp. l. hop cones, 1 tbsp. l. wild cherry bark, 1 tsp. juniper berries, a couple of sprigs of chocolate or regular mint, 1 tsp. coriander seeds, 5-6 crushed allspice peas, 3-4 clove buds, ½ tsp. fresh grated nutmeg, as well as other favorite spices. Burdock root can be substituted for dandelion root. Orange zest can be replaced with lemon zest. You can also replace some of the brown sugar with molasses (up to 150 ml).
- You can use more than just yeast to ferment root beer syrup. In the West, fermentation is practiced with kefir and ginger starters (look for ginger starter recipes on websites about healthy eating). You can also use regular whey from raw cow’s milk for this. By and large, root beer can be made double fermented, yeast and sour milk, in the manner of our bread kvass, using, for example, yeast sediment from ginger ale.
- If you decide to bottle your root beer in glass bottles and seal with a crown cork, be sure to leave a small amount of the drink in a plastic container to control the level of carbonation (by the hardness of the bottle walls) while it is stored at room temperature. Root beer carbonates very quickly and the carbon dioxide can easily rupture a glass bottle. Plastic containers in this case are more appropriate, although they look less presentable. It is better to open a carbonated drink in the bathroom – it foams strongly.
- The same ingredients can be used to make a concentrated root beer syrup that can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 year. To do this, reduce the total amount of water by half, and increase the amount of sugar to 1,4 kg. To get a pleasant carbonated, completely non-alcoholic drink, it is enough to dissolve 1 tbsp. l. concentrated root beer syrup in 0,5 liters of sparkling water.
For Mixologists: Root Beer Cocktails
They are not few. We will not dwell on obvious combinations: root beer in different proportions tastes well with Amaretto, stouts, sambuca, dark rum, bourbon, Baileys, Malibu, vanilla vodka, Jägermeister, absinthe and many other alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. But it’s worth stopping at more complex mixes. We recommend paying attention to the ice cream cocktail (and in general, root beer ice cream is a classic classic).
Cocktail Bite me / Bite Me
- 30 ml light rum
- 30 ml root beer
- 30 ml orange soda
Build in a tall glass with ice.
Cocktail Drunken Farmer / Hammered Farmer
- 120 ml spiced rum
- 90 ml apple juice
- 120 ml root beer
Pour chilled root beer into a beer glass, then stir in rum and apple juice.
Cocktail Manila Fizz / Manila Fizz
- 60 ml of gin
- 60 ml root beer
- ½ lemon juice
- 1 egg white
- 1 hours. L. icing sugar
Dry shake, ice shake, highball strain with a couple of ice cubes.
Cocktail Rootbeer float #4 / Rootbeer Float #4
- 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream
- 30 ml bourbon
- rutbir
Place the ice cream in a tall or beer glass, add the bourbon and top up with the root beer. Garnish with whipped cream.
West Coast Paralyzer Cocktail
- 30 ml blanco tequila
- 30 ml coffee liqueur
- milk
- rutbir
Build in a collins glass with ice.
Cocktail Assassin Sassaparilla / Sasparilla Assassin
- 30 ml whiskey
- 30 ml tequila
- 30 ml mint schnapps
- 30 ml root beer
Mix in rocks glass with ice.
For the Curious: Root Beer 250 Years Ago and FDA History
The drink, which was later called root beer, began to be sold in the United States from the 1840s in ordinary candy stores, and its written recipes date back to the 1860s. Prior to this, sassafras root had been used by the indigenous people of America for centuries. The first commercially successful brand of root beer was promoted by pharmacist Charles Elmer Hires. In 1875, he developed his “root tea” from sassafras and presented it to the public in 1876 at the famous “World’s Fair” in Philadelphia. Hires was an advocate of alcohol and at first wanted to sell his extract as “root tea”, but his desire to make a fortune selling the drink to Pennsylvania coal miners led him to call “tea” root beer. In 1886, his product was bottled and began his long journey to all corners of the United States.
Root beer Hires promotional poster
In 1898, the Bark family, who founded Barq’s Brothers Bottling Company in 1890 to produce soft drinks, launched a root beer based on Smilax. In 1919, the A&W Root Beer brand was founded, which is very popular today in the US and Canada. In the same year, the IBC Root Beer brand of root beer, which is no less popular in America, appeared. In Europe, a drink based on sassafras did not take root – at some point, the extract, the root for which cost simply exorbitant money, began to be used as a cure for syphilis (apparently, identifying it with smilax). Soon, no one wanted to be seen drinking a glass of medicine for this shameful disease, and the sassafras trade died down.
In 1960, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the use of sassafras root for commercial mass products.
This was preceded by crazy laboratory studies of “root tea” and sassafras essential oil, which contain large amounts of safrole. It turned out that if you give horse doses of this drug to laboratory rats, then sooner or later it will cause liver damage or various types of cancer in the experimental subjects. Later it turned out that the FDA did not conduct this study on humans, and the doses of safrole that the rats received were simply monstrous – to get the same dose to a person, he would have to drink about 80 liters of root beer for a long time.
Another similar traditional American drink is ginger beer.
Looking for more fermented healthy drinks at home? Please, in this article you will find the best birch kvass recipes.
More recent independent studies have shown that moderate consumption of sassafras-based beverages, on the contrary, reduces the risk of cancer. That said, the FDA has no questions about the artificial colors, flavors, and corn syrups that have become the basis of today’s commercial root beer and are clearly more harmful to health. But it turned out, how it turned out, and today you can taste a really real, authentic root beer only by preparing it yourself, which we recommend that you do at your leisure. Good luck!