Last night, after waiting about 3 months, we decided we were going to dump out a batch of Root Beer we had thought was a dud. Typically, you brew it, wait 3 weeks, and it's ready to drink. Well, at the 3 week mark, it was flat, and crappy. At the 6 week mark, flat and crappy. Well, I got around to getting things read to do another batch and was going to empty the bottles we had, and opened one. Lots and lots of carbonation, and a very nice smell. Meaning that the yeast had been used up and died like it should have.
Decided to pour a glass. Well... here's where the interesting thing happens. We used Vintner's yeast for the carbonation. There's something significantly different about natural carbonation vs. forced carbonation like you get from mass produced soda.
I took a drink. The thing that I noticed was that it wasn't sweet at all. It had a great head on it too. It was after I'd had half a bottle that I began to feel the tell tale signs that this wasn't just root beer, it was alcoholic root beer.
The sugars had been eaten up by the yeast, and turned into alcohol.
I now have something rather special on my hands here, because it has the root beer taste, a lack of sweetness, and the alcohol content of a glass of wine. I kid you not. AND... It doesn't go flat after opening.
I'm not sure exactly what happened, but if I can recreate this, I'm going to, as it's not a bad tasting beer at all.