Make a small batch of both and do a taste off. I always find that inspirational. On the flip side I think a Perry with pear juice would make a change. Your juice recipes are always great for us newbies.
Hard Root Beer Wine While I was growing up, one of my grand mothers would make actual root beer and always had a jug. It is a completely different animal when compared to "root beer soda". The flavor is very different. While I like both, there is a special place in my heart for the real stuff. For anyone who likes the soda version and has never tried the actual, I suggest trying to make up a batch. It will only end up at about 1% abv.
The original "root beer" had sassafras root in it. The flavor compound in the root is called "safrole". There were studies that if you gave rats like a gallon (or whatever, a huge amount) of safrole that they got cancer. So, the FDA banned that ingredient in food. So, today's root beer is not what Hires made back in the 1800's. I guess what I am getting at is your grand mother may have used the real thing, unless she made it from an extract or syrup. There are various recipes on YT that use sassafras root, if you want to try it.
Root Beer Mead. I know there isn't enough syrup (read some of the comments before I posted lol), but a Root Beer beer ale or lager would be interesting as well. The honey and vanilla in a mead should go well. I wonder what type of honey would do best. Orange blossom might give it a touch of orange creamsicle, if any of the citrus notes can power through the syrup. Root beer in general is normally a overpowering thing. Love my IBC btw.
@@CitySteadingBrews True but so has alcohol. Also gentian and ginger have been shown to reduce inflammation in the liver and other areas of the digestive system and help protect liver function. The dose is ultimately the poison - use less sassafras.
Guy's, once you poured the drinks. The first thing I thought was cream soda. To me it looked too light to be root beer. But, still a great show. Have an awesome and blessed day.
Looks like mead won the vote to me. Glad y'all liked the syrup, chose it because the ingredients didn't contain high-fructose base. Was also thinking those seltzers yall did might be another use also. Speaking of those seltzers there are some cane-sugar-based snowcone syrups that might be fun if you revisit kilju/ home seltzers, so you could make flavors like blue raspberry, orange soda, grape soda flavor.
That 1 week later hit hard....😮now you got a full Beard Looks like 6months later😂❤ All love thanks for sharing and teaching. Yall make me happy. 😊 I think you should turn the Rootbeer into a Porter so a Rootbeer Porter❤🎉
I have tried Root Beer as a mixer. It does not hit me as positive as it does for other people. But when you said it is like a Root Beer and Creme Soda that sounds good. Thanks for showing this product.
@CitySteadingBrews I think it was meadow foam that you used for your s'mores type Mead, I thought about that but also thought it would probably get lost with the heavy root beer flavors.
Root beer Mead! we don't have root beer in Australia, so this sounds fascinating and delicious! another idea would be getting a syrup or something similar for the UK softdrink D&B dandelion & Burdock root (which I now realise is the original Root Beer) or Irn Bru !!!
I vote for a sparkling mead, with some added lactose or maltodextrin for mouthfeel . That would really lean into the root beer float vibes from the strong vanilla flavor.
1:54 If A/B = C/D, then A x D = B x C This formula does come in handy sometimes. (My mother was a math teacher.) Half gallon of wine and mead each to compare.
@@CitySteadingBrews But if you hate it cough molasses cough you won't waste as much. 😛 I'm sure either wine or mead would be good. I like someone else's suggestion to make a RB mead using orange blossom honey.
Hard root beer wine. . Not that I don't think the floral or acidic flavors that a mead should have would be bad, but I don't think they are really complimentary. Simply cause you said there were more cream soda notes.
Hard root beer mead aged on white oak, or hard root beer wine aged on French oak because I can't follow instructions well. 🤣😅🤣 Preference for the mead, but I think that it could benefit from the oaking later on too. 😉
The funny thing is, I was recently looking into making mead using root beer syrup/extract and the Portland Syrups is one of the ones I was thinking about using for it 🤣Also on another note, since I'm not a fan of Coke, my "rum and coke" combo is whiskey and root beer. Specifically Irish whiskey and A&W. My vote is for the Hard Root Beer Mead!
Another that could be in the production pipeline down the road would be a sparkling cream soda or me being born in Texas, a Big Red hard sparkling soda might be something for this coming sumer also. Heck, the church ladies used to use Big Red to make home churned ice cream for church get togethers in the 80s and 90s😂
Your beard is looking mighty fine Brian! Like the start of the channel days haha. I'm assuming you used the C02 canister instead of just adding the syrup to carbonated water so we'd have something different to watch. Love it!
Love y'alls content. still mulling over my first brew. i need to get a hydrometer first. was wanting to do a bochet braggot (Trying to get a scotch-ale vibe) but scared of carbonating naturally since forced carb buy-in is more than the wife will allow for now (minikeg and a fridge for it - we have a counter-deep fridge due to limited space). 😅 so thinking of doing a date (syrup) melomel since i have some spare dates floating around the pantry. just gotta hit the 'checkout' button on my cart so i can get the hydrometer (and some Lalvin)
I am a fan of canadian double blend and IBC, usually 2 findgers of whisky on 2 cubes fill with IBC. sch a good simple drink. Make the wine. The syrup should be sweet enough that adding honey to it wouold hurt the flavour.
@@hathgar42 Yeah I've bought sassafras from Amazon. And made a root beer mead, but dumped it because I left the herbs in too long, and it was way too strong. So sad.
@@CitySteadingBrews Yes, large amounts of the oil over a long period of time. Making the occasional batch of root beer anything is unlikely to cause harm IMHO.
Hard Root Beer Mead for sure. The RB you made looks thin. I am used to a much darker RB. It could just be that brand but I wonder if increasing the amount of syrup to 3 oz would thicken and darken it. Never had that brand so I have no idea. Good luck!
I did the same thing once with a Rainbow extract and it also seemed OK. However, it was weak....it seemed to lose a LOT of its flavor. Also, Hires uses a preservative....which should also help from spoiling with mold, etc. Just my opinion....don't sue me!
Interesting, so you can actually turn it into "beer" the same way you can use Ale concentrate to make beer, I wonder how would it turn out with a handful of hops in the mix...
I have an old cookbook from the 1930's that has a root beer recipe in it. It calls for 5 pounds of sugar to 5 Gallons of water, 1 cake of yeast, and 1 4 ounce bottle of root beer extract. I believe you are to let it set for 7 days and then bottle. It is one I haven't tried yet.
When I was using yeast to carbonate soda, I always used as little as possible. A whole yeast cake seems like a lot. I just did not like the flavor the yeast fermentation added...and you risk bottle bombs. I much prefer force carbonating in a keg or like Brian did here. But, it's fun...soda was the first step for me getting into all of this.
@@CitySteadingBrews I looked online and I found a 4 ounce bottle of root beer extract to make 4 gallons of root beer. I was mistaken on my other ingredients however. The recipe calls for "4 pounds of sugar and 1/2 cake of yeast to 5 gallons of water plus 1 bottle of root beer extract. After 48 hours it is ready to drink." From OUR SUCCESSFUL FARMING COOK BOOK published in 1931. I believe it could tweaked and left to ferment until dry and then back sweetened for a wine or mead.
Root beer wine.... I'd also like to see ginger beer... I like this show Mostly because of the interaction between you two... how long have you been together your brains think exactly the same the brains will answer each other's question it's enlightening.....
I say Hard Root Beer Wine ... But which ever way you proceed, try doing it with Brown Sugar. From your description, and the look of said beverage, it is missing some dark brown sugar. More maple is needed and that is where a lot of kits use brown sugar so you do not get so much vanilla creme taste, I believe. Can you do a mead with Dark Brown Sugar?
Root beer Mead, Because that is more unique.
Was thinking and how about 1/2 gallon of each and compare them. Sounds more fun.
Good thing I read the comments. I wanted to suggest this as well.
Make a small batch of both and do a taste off. I always find that inspirational. On the flip side I think a Perry with pear juice would make a change. Your juice recipes are always great for us newbies.
Hard Root Beer Wine
While I was growing up, one of my grand mothers would make actual root beer and always had a jug. It is a completely different animal when compared to "root beer soda". The flavor is very different. While I like both, there is a special place in my heart for the real stuff. For anyone who likes the soda version and has never tried the actual, I suggest trying to make up a batch. It will only end up at about 1% abv.
The original "root beer" had sassafras root in it. The flavor compound in the root is called "safrole". There were studies that if you gave rats like a gallon (or whatever, a huge amount) of safrole that they got cancer. So, the FDA banned that ingredient in food. So, today's root beer is not what Hires made back in the 1800's.
I guess what I am getting at is your grand mother may have used the real thing, unless she made it from an extract or syrup. There are various recipes on YT that use sassafras root, if you want to try it.
I vote for root beer mead. That sounds yummy and complex!
Hard root beer mead!
I would be interested in seeing either, honestly
I pick hard root beer mead. However for content you could always do both. Love watching the videos. You have helped me in so many ways. Cheers!
We don't have enough to do both.
@ Well I will see if I or any of the other members can send you more. It would be great to try both. Happy Brewing!
Not going to ask a viewer to send more and... we are making a one gallon batch of one or the other.
Shout out for 1973! Great year. 🎉
Also - "Cross Multiply"
Or ratios. And I agree about 1973.
Root Beer Mead. I know there isn't enough syrup (read some of the comments before I posted lol), but a Root Beer beer ale or lager would be interesting as well. The honey and vanilla in a mead should go well. I wonder what type of honey would do best. Orange blossom might give it a touch of orange creamsicle, if any of the citrus notes can power through the syrup. Root beer in general is normally a overpowering thing. Love my IBC btw.
Mead!
ROOT BEER MEAD, PLEASE!!! ❤❤❤
Love you guys!!!
here's one for ya, I'd like to see a hard root mead with raw ingredients (gentian, sassafras, birch, and ginger roots)
Maybe but sassafras is still linked to liver cancer.
@@CitySteadingBrews True but so has alcohol. Also gentian and ginger have been shown to reduce inflammation in the liver and other areas of the digestive system and help protect liver function. The dose is ultimately the poison - use less sassafras.
Guy's, once you poured the drinks. The first thing I thought was cream soda. To me it looked too light to be root beer. But, still a great show. Have an awesome and blessed day.
We didn't make the syrup 😀👍
@@CitySteadingBrews understandable. It was a gift. Just an observation from a fan of yours and of root beer and cream soda.
Hard root beer mead. Because it sounds like a fun meadium to work with.
I've never mixed root beer and whiskey together. But jager and root beer works. I have sipped on whiskey while drinking root beer.
Root beer mead for sure! I’ve been contemplating doing a sparkling root beer mead for a while.
The Meade! That sounds pretty good! I think honey would work fantastic with the tasting notes that you said the syrup has already.
Root beer wine would be an awesome gift to give. Never made a mead but im sure its wonderful
I've made that facial expression too Derica, usually when I'm brewing with John. Highly recommend brewing in pairs, especially when sampling. @ 1:44 😂
Both
Rootbeer Mead please!!!😋😋😋
Looks like mead won the vote to me. Glad y'all liked the syrup, chose it because the ingredients didn't contain high-fructose base. Was also thinking those seltzers yall did might be another use also. Speaking of those seltzers there are some cane-sugar-based snowcone syrups that might be fun if you revisit kilju/ home seltzers, so you could make flavors like blue raspberry, orange soda, grape soda flavor.
That 1 week later hit hard....😮now you got a full Beard Looks like 6months later😂❤ All love thanks for sharing and teaching. Yall make me happy. 😊 I think you should turn the Rootbeer into a Porter so a Rootbeer Porter❤🎉
I have tried Root Beer as a mixer. It does not hit me as positive as it does for other people. But when you said it is like a Root Beer and Creme Soda that sounds good. Thanks for showing this product.
Yeah this one is kinda unique. We'll see how it does.
Mead seems more unique, but I say do both!
I remember Dad's Root Beer as a kid. Very good.
Sprecher's Maple Root Beer is awesome.
Root beer mead sounds awesome!
1:10 I call the Whiskey-Rootbeer mix drink The Chewbacca, that cocktail sounds like a wonderful
twist
Hard Root Beer Mead!!!
And if it's horrible, I'll take the blame for it!!! 😅
You guys are too frickin cute
High gravity pyment still chugging ❤😊
Mead gets my vote😊
I feel like it will make a fantastic mead.❤
Root beer mead! Sounds epic
Mead with orange blossom honey! Like a hybrid between your orange creamsicle, given that it has some cream soda notes in the syrup, and a root beer..
Yeah we were considering which honey to use...
@CitySteadingBrews I think it was meadow foam that you used for your s'mores type Mead, I thought about that but also thought it would probably get lost with the heavy root beer flavors.
It was meadowfoam, yup.
Yes to both
Can't do both. Not enough syrup.
I've done whiskey and root rootbeer I do that and coke depending on the whiskey 7 Up or ginger ale
Yes!
Root beer mead sounds yummy
Root beer Mead! we don't have root beer in Australia, so this sounds fascinating and delicious! another idea would be getting a syrup or something similar for the UK softdrink D&B dandelion & Burdock root (which I now realise is the original Root Beer) or Irn Bru !!!
You have to have some shipped in. I don't drink it often but it is amazing.
Mead would be a great choice
I vote for a sparkling mead, with some added lactose or maltodextrin for mouthfeel . That would really lean into the root beer float vibes from the strong vanilla flavor.
It will be sparkling, but not trying to create the float idea this time 👍
I like the mead idea
gonna hafta go with the hard root beer mead
I love IBC rootbeer. I grew up on it. Where I live now, near NOLA, Barq's is the preferred.
I'm good with either but prefer IBC.
Hard root beer mead 😊
1:54 If A/B = C/D, then A x D = B x C
This formula does come in handy sometimes.
(My mother was a math teacher.)
Half gallon of wine and mead each to compare.
I'd rather just do a gallon of one or the other tbh.
@@CitySteadingBrews But if you hate it cough molasses cough you won't waste as much. 😛
I'm sure either wine or mead would be good. I like someone else's suggestion to make a RB mead using orange blossom honey.
Hey guys. So, the rootbeer mead would be a great idea.! Buckwheat honey might be a really good pair with the root beer extract.
would love to see a hard root beer just to maintain its original characteristics. Unless you have some special honey you think would pair really well.
Maybe both. Mead, if only one choice.
Only enough syrup for one.
Hard root beer wine.
.
Not that I don't think the floral or acidic flavors that a mead should have would be bad, but I don't think they are really complimentary. Simply cause you said there were more cream soda notes.
Hard root beer mead aged on white oak, or hard root beer wine aged on French oak because I can't follow instructions well. 🤣😅🤣
Preference for the mead, but I think that it could benefit from the oaking later on too. 😉
The funny thing is, I was recently looking into making mead using root beer syrup/extract and the Portland Syrups is one of the ones I was thinking about using for it 🤣Also on another note, since I'm not a fan of Coke, my "rum and coke" combo is whiskey and root beer. Specifically Irish whiskey and A&W. My vote is for the Hard Root Beer Mead!
I never would have mixed root beer with anything... interesting. I need to try it I think 👍
Personally I really like it. Whiskey goes quite well with root beer imo
Mead obviously is the better choice!
I'm curious... why?
Root Mead
I think the honey will complement the extra vanilla, well.
More mead, more better?
I'm also curious how the flavor would be different
Another that could be in the production pipeline down the road would be a sparkling cream soda or me being born in Texas, a Big Red hard sparkling soda might be something for this coming sumer also. Heck, the church ladies used to use Big Red to make home churned ice cream for church get togethers in the 80s and 90s😂
Your beard is looking mighty fine Brian! Like the start of the channel days haha. I'm assuming you used the C02 canister instead of just adding the syrup to carbonated water so we'd have something different to watch. Love it!
Yup! And to taste the stuff properly for science.
Hard Root Beer Wine, I love some of the hard root bears at Aldi so would be cool to see if you guys could make a recipe in the same ballpark as that.
We would be using this syrup.... so not really changing anything as to make a clone or something.
Root beer mead. ‘Cause you know you wanna.
Love y'alls content. still mulling over my first brew. i need to get a hydrometer first. was wanting to do a bochet braggot (Trying to get a scotch-ale vibe) but scared of carbonating naturally since forced carb buy-in is more than the wife will allow for now (minikeg and a fridge for it - we have a counter-deep fridge due to limited space). 😅 so thinking of doing a date (syrup) melomel since i have some spare dates floating around the pantry. just gotta hit the 'checkout' button on my cart so i can get the hydrometer (and some Lalvin)
I am a fan of canadian double blend and IBC, usually 2 findgers of whisky on 2 cubes fill with IBC. sch a good simple drink.
Make the wine. The syrup should be sweet enough that adding honey to it wouold hurt the flavour.
root beer mead sound pretty good to me :)
root beer mead Yes!
Root beer wine, then make a root beer mead using the ingredients used to make a root beer from scratch.
Sassafras is not sold in the US, so we'd have to use an extract anyway.
@CitySteadingBrews Amazon sells sassafras root bark in the US.
I looked. Yup. Seems the oil is illegal. Still not sure I want to use it as it is linked to liver cancer but will research more.
@@hathgar42 Yeah I've bought sassafras from Amazon. And made a root beer mead, but dumped it because I left the herbs in too long, and it was way too strong. So sad.
@@CitySteadingBrews Yes, large amounts of the oil over a long period of time. Making the occasional batch of root beer anything is unlikely to cause harm IMHO.
Hard Root Beer Mead for sure.
The RB you made looks thin. I am used to a much darker RB. It could just be that brand but I wonder if increasing the amount of syrup to 3 oz would thicken and darken it. Never had that brand so I have no idea.
Good luck!
We used their own recipe. 3 oz in a 16 oz bottle is a lot, even 2 oz is a lot imo.
@CitySteadingBrews okay. 🙂
Mead for sure.
I have a Hires rootbeer homebrew concentrate from YEARS ago. It seems ok. Do you think there is anything I should be concerned about using it?
Honestly couldn't say.
I did the same thing once with a Rainbow extract and it also seemed OK. However, it was weak....it seemed to lose a LOT of its flavor. Also, Hires uses a preservative....which should also help from spoiling with mold, etc. Just my opinion....don't sue me!
Hard root beer mead!
Hard rootbeer mead!
Interesting, so you can actually turn it into "beer" the same way you can use Ale concentrate to make beer, I wonder how would it turn out with a handful of hops in the mix...
It's called root beer, but it's technically not a real beer. I think hops would be disgusting in this, lol.
Root beer mead or what the guy below said, some kind of root beer stout
It's either mead or wine... not planning a beer with this.
I have an old cookbook from the 1930's that has a root beer recipe in it. It calls for 5 pounds of sugar to 5 Gallons of water, 1 cake of yeast, and 1 4 ounce bottle of root beer extract. I believe you are to let it set for 7 days and then bottle. It is one I haven't tried yet.
4 ounces for 5 gallons? That's some seriously strong extract.
When I was using yeast to carbonate soda, I always used as little as possible. A whole yeast cake seems like a lot. I just did not like the flavor the yeast fermentation added...and you risk bottle bombs. I much prefer force carbonating in a keg or like Brian did here. But, it's fun...soda was the first step for me getting into all of this.
@@CitySteadingBrews I looked online and I found a 4 ounce bottle of root beer extract to make 4 gallons of root beer. I was mistaken on my other ingredients however. The recipe calls for "4 pounds of sugar and 1/2 cake of yeast to 5 gallons of water plus 1 bottle of root beer extract. After 48 hours it is ready to drink." From OUR SUCCESSFUL FARMING COOK BOOK published in 1931. I believe it could tweaked and left to ferment until dry and then back sweetened for a wine or mead.
Just sharing and old recipe.
Not trying to get greedy here😅. Can we get both? Hard root beer and root beer mead.
Would need to be smaller batches, but we are considering it.
I do a sweet stout root beer that is amazing
So do you want it to be a mead or wine?
You mention a "sweet stout root beer" and don't offer a recipe?
Party foul!
Inquiring minds want to know!
@@CitySteadingBrews my vote is for mead
I’m all about the mead
Hard Root Beer Mead. I think it'd add an extra layer to the overall flavour profile than just plain sugar. Guess we'll see which gets the most votes
Definitely the root beer mead.
Root beer wine.... I'd also like to see ginger beer... I like this show Mostly because of the interaction between you two... how long have you been together your brains think exactly the same the brains will answer each other's question it's enlightening.....
We have done ginger beer twice, ginger mead and a ginger hydromel.
And thanks!
Whichever you think would have the best flavor. I do not know enough yet to say one over the other
Hard root beer mead
Hard root beer mead
Why only make one when you can do a small batch of each & compare which one you like better!! Both...both is good.
Hard root beer mead. i’d like to see how honey goes with it. :-)
I would vote for the hard root beer wine. My gut says that the root beer flavor wouldn't go as good with honey.
Abita Root Beer is the best
Root Beer Mead!!
I’m thinking root beer mead
I would go for the wine first then the mead.
We have enough syrup to do one or the other.
I say Hard Root Beer Wine ... But which ever way you proceed, try doing it with Brown Sugar. From your description, and the look of said beverage, it is missing some dark brown sugar. More maple is needed and that is where a lot of kits use brown sugar so you do not get so much vanilla creme taste, I believe. Can you do a mead with Dark Brown Sugar?
I would rather not change the flavor too much. The only way to make mead that way is to split it all up... not really worth it imo.
Well I saw 2 bottles of the concentrate, so maybe BOTH.
My vote is for both.
We need both bottles just for one gallon.
@CitySteadingBrews Argh, well in that case, my vote would be the Mead.
Luv your channel, Sir and Mam.
Root beer mead!!!!!
Make them all
Not enough syrup.
@CitySteadingBrews 😢😭
Ok fine mead then lol
Mean mead!🥸🥸🥸❌❤️
Mean?
Root Beer mead.
Hard root beer Mead
Voting for Root Beer Mead
Hard root beer mead.
Root beer mead
Can you make a mead or wine from South Korean cheong?
There's a lot of types right? I mean most of what I saw can ferment, sure.
Root beer mead:)
Root Beer Mead please.... So I can attempt if it works for you guys
Mead, although it sounds more complicated.
Not really. Honey vs sugar is the main change.