I want to make an alcoholic root beer. when i've made regular root beer, i've used this recipe as my guide. now, this makes 2 litres of rootbeer and, herb-wise, we're looking at around $5 for the cost. if you convert that to a 5 gallon batch, that would be $50 in herb costs alone. I'm wondering how much I'd have to dial down the herbs if I was brewing this as beer. typically, for beer, you keep spice/herb additions more on the subtle side. thoughts?
Hard to say. Brew a 2.5 gal batch with the same ingredients and see if it's flavorful enough for you. Or supplement it with root beer flavoring extract. I think those little bottles for $8 make 5 gal. Once fermented, I would think it would come out fairly dry for a root beer. Personally I would probably add something like rye or something to give it some body.
i'd dial down the sugars, most certainly. that would be adjusted and i'd just mash at 155 F to keep sweetness. i'd also likely put some carafa in there to keep it dark looking and would probably use nugget hops to give a neutral bitterness. i'd probably use wheat vs rye, since i don't know if i want that rye flavour.
I don't know how true this is, but I've heard that root beer flavoring is next to impossible to get out of anything made of rubber (o rings, maybe tubing, etc.) Just wanted to throw that out there in case you have some homebrewing parts that could be rooned.
Just a FYI, most of the commercial alcoholic root beers are malt beverages, not beer. IE regular root beer with alcohol added.
Why use any hops? Use the bitterness of the herbs to provide balance. Rye is a very very subtle flavor, that I think would work well in a root beer. And the silky body rye (~15% at least) is unmatched by any other grain IMO. You got me thinking about it now. I may may give it a shot.
hops to act as a preservative. put in 0.5 oz of magnum ( i meant that, not nugget) at 45-60 min. another thought would be a bit of cascade at the end to add to the floralness. even some saaz.
