Thursday, April 17, 2008

Home Brewed . . . Root Beer!

It isn't easy to find Root Beer locally, and it is Kirstin's very favorite kind of soda. Last year, I found a website with a recipe for making homemade root beer. Only one ingredient - root beer extract - wasn't available locally, so I ordered some of that, and we received it back around Christmas.

In the past few weeks, Kirstin has had a break from her college courses, and so she started experimenting with making her own root beer. The results have met with mixed reviews. Fortunately, Kirstin likes it a lot, since it was specifically for her that I'd purchased the extract. Other family taste testers have remarked that "it tastes like medicine," and "it's okay," although some others enjoyed it more.

One problem with this recipe has been that the amount of fizz is fairly low. Unlike store bought root beer, which generally has an enormous amount of froth, our version is somewhat flat, and once the bottle has been opened, it quickly gets much flatter. The fizz in our homemade root beer is created by fermentation, so a very tiny amount of alcohol is created. I think this may be the reason for the "medicine" comment on the taste.

It's wonderful when we can find a way to enjoy some food or drink we miss from the states, without actually importing the item. Just a tablespoon of the extract makes 2 liters of root beer, so importing the extract is very do-able!

4 comments:

Richelle Wright said...

How neat! Where do you find ideas like this?

Trish said...

I stumbled upon it, when I was looking for information on making cheese. So, it was just a lucky find, I guess!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

You should try Acti-Malta, a sweet, nutritious, malt-based non-alcoholic beverage made by cerveceria hondureƱa the exclusive bottler for Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Light, Sprite, Fresca and Canada Dry in Honduras.
You should be able to find it in any big Pulperia or Supermarket.