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Title: Our Brew
Source:
me
URL Source: http://na
Published: Dec 16, 2009
Author: Me
Post Date: 2009-12-16 19:26:52 by TommyTheMadArtist
Keywords: None
Views: 177
Comments: 3
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.
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#1. To: TommyTheMadArtist (#0)
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Open a micro brew - you could get rich. We were selling a 22 oz bomber of Pumpkin spiced beer for - ------------$4.99/bot and sold out of all the cases we had. I was dumbfounded.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" You'll need a 5 gallon bucket, 4 gallons of water, 8-10 cups sugar, vintner's yeast, or champagne yeast, and sassafras root, about 2 ozs. The yeast we bought was pre-measured in packets. I think they were a TSP each. It took only one packet to do the job for the batch. Mix your yeast up in some lukewarm water with some sugar. Let it sit for about 20 minutes. While that's sitting there, take the remainder of the water and heat it up in a kettle til it's boiling. Mix in your sugar and Sassafrass root. Let it boil for few minutes, then turn off the heat and let it cool down. When it's room temperature, strain out the sassafras root as you pour your mixture into another big container containing the yeast mixture. Make sure your stuff is room temperature, otherwise it will kill the yeast. Stir everything thoroughly. Then Bottle. We use heavy glass beer bottles, and have a capper. After you've bottled up all your root beer, which should total 24, 16 oz bottles, put the root beer in a cool dry place out of the sunlight. Typically, regular root beer takes 3 days to a week to gestate. We let ours go about 3 weeks in order for all the yeast to die off. However, in this case it didn't. Not sure why yet. We actually let our rootbeer sit in boxes for about 3 months, then transferred to the fridge. When you pour it out, you'll see some sludge in the bottom of each bottle. That is the dead yeast. DO NOT DRINK IT. It tastes terrible. We've been making soda, beer and wine now for a while and we enjoy it quite a bit. It's something you can teach your kids to do, which will make them appreciate GOOD soda over the crap in the stores. At least with this you can control the amount of sugar that goes into what they drink.
Better to be hated for what you are, than loved for what you are not.
#2. To: TommyTheMadArtist (#0)
#3. To: All (#0)
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