I watched an episode of Good Eats where Alton Brown made homemade ginger ale and while it looked fun, it also looked like way too much work. (I believe you had to actually grate the ginger.) Homemade root beer, however, that’s something I’ve wanted to try before, so I bought some extract.
According to the internet recipe, I had everything else – a 2-liter bottle, yeast, water and the all-important azucar. My internet guy said, “1 cup of sugar, 1/4 teaspoon of yeast, 1 tablespoon of root beer extract, fill with water, swirl to dissolve, cap, let sit around 3-4 days to carbonate.” He also said that 1 cup of sugar was too much, so I used less.
That was my first mistake.
My second mistake was thinking that I could wait 3-4 days for an experiment to be done. I opened it on day 2 to some disappointing non-fizziness.
I made Lloyd drink some first.
Lloyd: “Bleh. What’s wrong with this?”
Me: “I didn’t use the whole amount of sugar.”
Lloyd: “Savory root beer? Good grief.”
I took a swallow, well aware that the recipe guy said that ‘real root beer should have a heady, yeasty flavor’
Me: “Achk! It smells like feet.” It also tasted like feet, but don’t hold me to that – the last time I tasted feet I was in first grade and had some bizarre hygiene rituals.
I tried to remedy it by pouring some sugar into the bottle, which only led to a re-enactment of the Diet Coke & Mentos phenomenon. (The camera was out of memory space, though, so I’ll only have Lloyd’s laughter to remember it by.)
Bottom line: Cough up money for A&W. It’s totally worth it.
hahahah!!! Amazing!!
If you ever feel inclined to make beer yourself by purchasing one of those ‘beer in a kit’ things….do you and your loved ones a favor and don’t buy the kit. Buy the beer already made and packaged in convenient bottles or cans. Much tastier…
Duly noted.
Brent has always said that when you’re following a recipe, if you like a particular ingredient, add more of it.
This brings back some memories…In my high school freshman biology class we made root beer. I don’t remember the taste or the scientific principles of that lab.
Yes. 88 cents is totally worth it for a 2 liter of pre-made A&W.
Is Lloyd wearing a bi-colored tie?
Buy the premade stuff…definitely.
Of course buy the pre-made stuff if you want to drink it…but then you lose all the fun of making it! And really, isn’t it all about the fun.
(HAHA!! Now that’s something I’ve never tried…feet…even in 1st grade! HA! Laughed out loud)
Use seltzer water, much simpler and if you find good syrup it tastes better than A&W
I will definitely try that, since I have all this concentrate left over, but I was really hoping that if this turned out to be a giant success I could stop buying more plastic bottles (being the eco-freak that I am).
What I really want is this, but I just can’t justify it.
I believe they rent out kegs of club soda for those, you should just rent the keg, then you don’t waste more bottles, then when you’re out of syrup, or tired of root beer, return the keg.
My heart just started beating a little faster.
In that last picture you didn’t actually make Lloyd plunk down money to try it, did you?
How else am I going to get rich?
No wonder that in the really olden days — long before my time — bottles of root beer were known to explode in basements!
My grandma always said “the cook should taste the brew before she serves it.” Good rootbeer sounds like fun though.