Perhaps a stupid question

[Crazy8]

First off I was referred to the site from someone at my local brew shop. He knows I have been brewing root beer and he first asked if I belong to the homebrewtalk forum, and I do. He then recommended this site and your podcasts and even started talking about one in particular regarding yeast and culturing your own yeast. Now I am listening to one a podcast as I type this and it sounds great and seems like there is a wealth of information available here. My big question is this...Is there anything here directed towards root beer brewers. I know root beer brewers are likely out numbered 100:1 but figured I would ask anyway.

Now I know their are some similarities with brewing beer and root beer but at the same time I am curious how much information would need to be heard or read and filtered through before coming across something that might carry over to someone who brews root beer. Anyway these might all be stupid questions but I guess you never know till you ask.

Thank you all with the help and keep up the great work here.

[snowcapt]

Not much rootbeer around, Im afraid.
At least I cant remember ever seeing anything about it.
Im sure a few of the folks here have brewed up a few batches of it.
Ive thought about doing it, but never got around to doing it.
Also, welcome to the forum.

[Bugeater]

Root beer is incredibly easy to make if you use extract. The quality will vary according to the brand that you use. You can get the Hires brand at most larger grocery stores. It makes an acceptable root beer but to get better stuff, go to your local homebrew shop and look for the Gnome brand. Just follow the directions on the package.

You simply mix together water, sugar, extract and yeast. Add this to sanitized 2 liter soda bottles, seal and let sit at room temperature just until the bottle feels rock hard (two to 4 days depending on room temperature). The rock hard feel tells you it is fully carbonated. At that time, you move it all to the refrigerator and chill it down. As soon as it's cold it's ready to enjoy. It is important not to leave it at room temperature too long or you may have exploding bottles.

I would suggest using brown sugar instead of white sugar for better taste. For even better taste try sarsaparilla extract instead of the root beer. You LHBS will have all sorts of soda extract to try and the process is the same for all of them. After a bit you can try all sorts of things this way. I made one soda using woodruff syrup and lemon juice that came out very nice. I had another one from a friend who used orange kool-aid and a little vanilla extract. Cream soda anyone? There is almost no limit to what you can try. Good luck!

[BDawg]

I used to make soda a lot for my kids. I could lower the amount of sugar in it by 10-20% and they would not notice. Besides, it is much better than that corn syrup they normally use.

I had a keg and tap dedicated for soda that I would not put my beer into. Kegging is so much easier and there is no danger whatsoever of bottle bombs because there is no yeast involved.

I still have a SodaStream that I use to make carbonated water (like the Talking Rain stuff they sell at Costco).
I like that thiing because it's easy and i'm not committed to a keg-sized 3 or 5 gallon batch.

[spiderwrangler]

I still have a SodaStream that I use to make carbonated water (like the Talking Rain stuff they sell at Costco).
I like that thiing because it's easy and i'm not committed to a keg-sized 3 or 5 gallon batch.

We have a Sodastream too, it is nice with the water flavoring additives (Mio or the grocery store knock off). If you want flavor w/o extra sugar, the extract flavorings from the homebrew shop work pretty well to add a bit more interest to it...

[captain carrot]

A fellow homebrewer would substitute half of the sugar with honey. It made a pretty amazing rootbeer.
Good Luck!