You say Good-bye, I say Hello!

Let me cut right to the chase, I have way to many blogs, whether it is Freemasonry, Mormonism, Root Beer, Politics, Dutch Ovens, or life in general - I am spending way too much time on Blogs. Now, I enjoy blogging, but trying to spread myself too thin just isn't getting things done. Therefore I am saying good-bye to this blog as well as all of my blogs.

With that it in mind, please check out my new blog, Col. Chubbs. This si going to be the quintessential blog, I will discuss everything that I find interesting. Just as I am a combination of all of my hobbies, so too is this new blog.

Extract Brewing!

So, you've followed directions and you've set up your home brewery (bought all of the equipment and cleaned your kitchen). If you don't know what type of equipment that you'll need, click here for my list. Now you're ready to try your hand at brewing up a batch of Root Beer and you'll be using Extract to do so.

There are a few kinds of Extracts that you can try, each are as unique as their labeling. I have been using Homebrew Old Fashioned Root Beer Soda Pop Base, I use this first because it is what my local Home Brew Shop offers and I have found that it is the most prevalent at most Home Brew Shops. But there is Hoptech which has 3 different flavors, Gnome, Zatarains, Hires Big H, and the list could go on. Each is going to have different measurements that are to be used to make up a gallon of Soft Drink. What follows is my directions to make 1 gallon of Homebrew brand Root Beer from extract:

Ingredients:

1/4 Tsp. Red Star Pasteur Champagne Yeast

1 Tbsp. Maltodextrin

1 Cup White Sugar

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp. Root Beer Extract

Procedure:

1) Make sure that everything is sanitized.

2) Dissolve the yeast in a cup of lukewarm water (about 100*). Let it stand covered for about 5 minutes.

3) In your brew kettle, bring water to a boil and add the Maltodextrin and sugars and make sure that they have completely dissolved.

4) Bring the sugar solution to a simmer and add the Root Beer Extract.

5) Pour your Wort into your Fermenting Bucket.

6) Add enough cool water to bring the total to 1 gallon and the overall temperature to within 3 degrees of the dissolved yeast cup.

7) Add the yeast to the wort and let sit, covered, for an hour.

8) At the end of the hour you should be able to see small bubble of Carbon Dioxide breaking the service (this is a visible sign that fermentation has begun). When you put your spoon in the brew to stir it around a bunch of bubble should break the service (they were clinging to the side of the bucket and the motion of you stirring freed them). If you don't see any of this, don't worry.

9) Bottle your brew, stir every now and again to keep the yeast and sugars evenly in suspension.

10) Lay the filled bottles on their sides to make sure that you have secured the lids.

11) Put the bottles in a warm, dark place for a few days to allow for fermentation. Check every twelve hours, roughly, to check on carbonation. Once carbonated to your preference move to the fridge.

12) Enjoy!

That's extract brewing! Our next brewing experience will be brewing from all natural ingredients!

Alcohol?!

In the previous post the importance of yeast was discussed. And a very brief overview of the fermentation process was discussed. Through the course of this discussion, the topic of Alcohol was mentioned. I personally that it would be important to discuss this a little more indepth, especially when we generally consider Root Beer to be a alcohol free beverage.

You heard right, though, there is alcohol in naturally carbonated beverages, which our Root Beer is. Alcohol is the other by-product of the yeast in our beverage. What happens when beer is allowed to ferment, semi-controlled, is all of the sugars, or nearly all, are allowed to be consumed by the yeast and this creates the alcohol. This, depending on the amount of sugars present, creates an alocholic beverage that can have alcohol content of 3.2% ABV to 12% ABV. In our Root Beer though, the fermentation is completely contained in a sealed bottle and only a small amount of the sugars are allowed to ferment (just enough to create the carbonation) and this produces anywhere between (I've heard and read) .05% ABV to .5% ABV. At these levels a person would be required to drink near a gallon and a half of Root Beer to get the same buzz as from one 12 oz. bottle of beer. The reality is, the body metabolizes the alcohol in your home brewed Root Beer faster than you can drink it.

You should be aware of this for a couple of reasons: We generally assume Root Beer to contain no alcohol, so this throws a few wrenches into our thinking. Should we give this to the kids? What if you have a medical condition that requires that you abstain from any and all alcohol, or your faith's tenets bar you from consuming alcohol? These are all questions that must be answered and thought out for yourself. But, I will give my answer to these questions and give you a chance to get to know me a little better.

I am LDS (Mormon) and the Prophet Joseph Smith received a revelation stating that the consumption of alcohol was not good for the body. This revelation can be found in the Doctrine and Covenants Section 89. Well, as most good Mormons, I was taught that the very consumption of alcohol was a sin and that my Eternal Soul was be left in Outer Darkness for such an act (A little tongue in cheek here). Unless of course you cooked with wine or vanilla extract for that matter-you know the alcohol cooks out! Well in my research I have come to discover a few things. It's an old wives tale that all of the alcohol cooks out, most of it does, but not all, so if you are cooking anything that has alcohol in it, there is some still there, and that includes those chocolate chip cookies you baked with a teaspoon of 32% ABV vanilla extract. Alcohol can be absorbed through the skin, I use alcohol based deoderant and aftershave. Through this research I have come to feel that the very idea of a total abstinence of alcohol is not feasible. I do believe that alcohol has very negative effects that come along with its consumption, especially when consumed faster than the body can metabolize it. Therefore, I don't drink alcoholic beverages. But I don't have a problem drinking a non-alcoholic Root Beer that has less alcohol by volume as that teaspoon of vanilla that I used for my Peach Cobbler. Do I feel compelled to tell other members of my faith that there are trace amounts of alcohol in my Root Beers before I give them a try? Absolutely, it is there place to decide how they feel about that, not mine.

And that is why I am letting everyone here know as well!

Yeast!

Let's talk about yeast! Yeast are micro-organisms that are classified as a Fungus. There are over 1500 different species of yeast that are known currently and more are discovered all the time. Yeast have been used for thousands of years in baking and creating beverages, and they are considered one of the first domesticated organisms. Yeast is one of the most important ingredients in our efforts to brew Root Beer - in my book it takes a very, very close second to the actual ingredients of the brew.

This is because, without yeast - at the very best we would have root tea and in the case of actual beers - grain teas. Yeast is what creates our carbonation and in hard drinks - alcohol. The science behind this is very simple.

When yeast are introduced to an environment that they like and a plentiful food source a small colony can quickly become a large one. In our case that environment is our Root Beer with plenty of sugar as food. In layman's terms the yeast swim about our brew munching on as much sugar as they can. The byproduct of this feast (and yes byproduct is a nice word for belching and urinating) is Carbon Dioxide an alcohol When this process takes place in a closed system - our bottles - the Carbon Dioxide has nowhere to go and after enough is built up the liquid absorbs it which creates our Carbonation. This can happen anytime between twelve hours to a few days depending on temperature and yeast strain.

So yeast is important to our brewing, but there's over 1500 different species - which one should be used? There are some basics: Dry or liquid, Lager or Ale or Wine or Champagne or Baking, and there's even minor adjustments in all of these. Each will also give minor changes to taste. Really it's at your discretion, I like dry lager, ale, and champagne. I avoid baking because of its flavor, liquid yeasts aren't worth the extra cost, and you need to be careful while using lager due to its lower fermenting temperature. The one yeast to avoid is Wild Yeast, this yeast accidentally gets into your brew and will infect it. If there are any off flavors in your finished product then wild yeast is to blame.

Yeast are an integral part of your brewing and one of the many small things that truly effects your outcome - best if you know what happens in the process.

The Right Tools?

It's been said that the right tools are half of the job and when it comes to brewing Root Beer it is considered gospel. Every person that brews has their own list of equipment that they consider necessary for the job to be done right. Some lists might be the barest of basics while others might include that rare item that you might, if you're lucky, use once a year. Here is the Gunslinger's Right Tools.

Brewing Kettle: If you're going to be brewing using natural ingredients than a place to heat up the water to pull out the essences and flavors of your ingredients is absolutely necessary. My brew kettle is a 4 qt. kettle that I can place on the stove. This size is convenient enough to simmer my natural ingredients as well as dissolve powdered ingredients (sugar and malto-dextrin).

Fermenting Bucket: After you have created your wort (pronounced wert-it is by definition unfermented beer and in our case it is uncarbonated Root Beer) you want a place where you can add more water if you need to as well as a place to let it cool so that you can pitch your yeast. You can either purchase a plastic bucket or glass carboy for this. Make sure that whatever you purchase is food grade and has never been used to store anything toxic.

Bottle Filling Device: This can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be. It could be a funnel that you put in the bottle and pour from your Fermenting Bucket or it could be a siphon and filler tube. Filling your bottles will be the most tedious part of the brewing process, in my opinion it is worth the extra bit of cash to make the job easier. I use a siphon and filler tube and have never had any problems (unless I'm not paying attention and get Root Beer all over the floor).

Bottles: Generally we think of either plastic or glass bottles, but in reality there are more types of bottles than we have space to discuss. Bottles are what contains and closes the fermenting system which creates the carbonation for our Root Beer. Due to the fact that this carbonating process (fermentation) builds up pressure, enough to break a glass or plastic bottle, it is advised that you use plastic bottles. It is easier to know when your Root Beer is carbonated and is not as dangerous if it does explode. Make sure that your bottles are food grade PET.

Sanitizing Bucket: Sanitizing will soon become your new motto, if not be prepared for some bad batches of Root Beer (consider this ample warning). What you want is a large bucket that you can fill with sanitizing solution to sanitize all of your equipment for brew day. I have a large, six gallon bucket that I use.

Thermometer: Pitching your yeast must be done at the right temperature or you may kill the yeast. A thermometer will make it that much easier to know when you can pitch the yeast safely.

Nuts and Bolts: This includes measuring cups and spoons, stirring spoon, funnels, any little thing that will help you on brew day.

With this list of tools you have the first step in equipping your home brewery and making your brew day less complicated than it needs to be.

So You Want to Brew Root Beer?

One thing that I wish I had done when I started brewing Root Beer was to test it out first. It's a moot point now, I would be here regardless if I had started out with a test run first or if I had bought all the brewing equipment up front (which I did). But, what if I didn't like the taste of brewed Root Beer? What if I had wasted $100+ to sit in my closet with a wife to nag about everytime she had to see it? This is why I believe that this test run is to important to your brewing success. It's a lot easier to say "I don't like this" when you only spent $5 on everything rather than buying a bucket, bottles, siphon, filler tube, caps, sanitizer, etc.

Here is an easy extract brew that takes no more equipment than what you probably already have in your house and a short trip to your local grocery store for the things that you don't.


Equipment and Supplies:


1 Empty Two Liter Soda Bottle w/ Cap

Measuring Spoons and Cups-1/4 Teaspoon, 1 Tablespoon, and 1 and 1/2 Cup

Funnel


Sugar (1 and 1/2 cups)


Yeast (1/4 Teaspoon)


Root Beer Extract (1 Tablespoon)

Lukewarm (100-105*) Tap Water (Enough to fill the 2 liter bottle)


The Basics:

1) Make sure that the Soda Bottle is clean. Did I mention that the soda bottle should be CLEAN?

2) Put the sugar and yeast into the Soda Bottle. You can mix it up if you want to but this is not necessary right now.

3) Pour in the extract into the Soda Bottle. Try to get as much into the sugar as possible for it to dissolve easier - but don't worry if you missed.







4) Put in enough Tap Water to fill the soda bottle about half full. Make sure that the water is the right temperature - too hot and you may kill the yeast, too cold and it may not re-activate from its dormant state.

5) Put the cap on the bottle and shake the heck out of it, we want to try to dissolve as much of the sugar and extract as possible.

6) Fill up the rest of the bottle, leaving about 1 inch headspace.

7) Recap and shake the heck out of it again.

8) Put the Soda Bottle in a warm dark place and check everyday. The bottle will get harder to squeeze every single day due to the build up of Carbon Dioxide.

9) Once the bottles are very hard to squeeze -at least as hard as a soda pop from the store (usually 2-3 days depending on the temperature) put the bottle in the fridge to chill for a day or two. It is important to put the Root Beer in the fridge at this point-chilling the brew slows down the yeast activity whereas if you left it out it would continue to build pressure until it blows.

10) Enjoy your home brewed Root Beer!


Some Things to be Aware of:

-This will not taste like store bought, soda pop Root Beer! It has a slight yeast taste to it. This taste can be changed depending on the yeast that you use but will not go away.

-There will be a small yeast deposit at the bottom of the bottle. Some people don't like the taste of the sediment so pour carefully to avoid it if you wish.

-The taste clarifies and more yeast settles the longer it has to sit in the fridge.

-To add more mouthfeel to the brew add a teaspoon of Maltodextrin. A word of caution you will have to shake the dickens out of the bottle to get the Malto to dissolve (boiling it in water and then adding it to the bottle works the best-just make sure the water is the right temperature when you add it to the bottle).

-You can tweak the sugar levels and extract levels to taste-just make sure you add enough sugar to carbonate.

-You cannot naturally carbonate with artificial sweeteners.


So, you just brewed your own Root Beer. Doing it this way taught a few lessons; 1) Brewing Root Beer really isn't that difficult-you can make it as involved as you want it to be, 2) It does take time-you're looking at 4-6 days before you can enjoy your brew, and 3) Brewing is a fun hobby!

Why is Root Beer-Root BEER?

Before the age of soda pops, mass commercialization, and processed foods, people were more or less Self-Reliant. They would try to make as much as possible from what they had available. This included beverages of all kinds, from distilled corn whiskey to gran ales even to our Root Beer. The one thing that all of these beverages had in common was that yeast was involved somewhere along the line.

And we all know what happens when yeast is introduced to a sugary new home. You got it,...Fermentation! Once again, we all know that there are two byproducts of the fermentation process; 1) Carbon Dioxide-which creates carbonation is a closed system, and 2) Alcohol. Today we all get our knickers in a bunch when we hear about anything that's not suppose to have alcohol in it having some in it. During the heydays of self-reliance though there was a lot more understanding of the issue.

Because of the fermentation process that occurs naturally in all living things, alcohol is everywhere. The act of yeast raising bread produces alcohol, the fermentation process is used to make cheese, yogurt, and most everything. In beverages of the time, fermentation was the norm rather than the exception. The truth is that the fermentation process can be monitored and controlled. Depending on sugar levels and a close watch of fermentation, our forefathers could make strong beers, moderate beers, and Little Beers. All had gradiated levels of alcohol and Little Beers were considered good enough for children.

Traditional Root Beer and Beer go through the exact same process actually. Different items are placed in water and simmered for an amount of time, creating a wort (pronounced wert), sugars are added, and when the temperature is right-throw in the yeast. The difference being, other than ingredients, that the beer is a controlled ferment but all of the sugars are allowed to be fermented out which creates a higher alcohol content than Root Beer which contains the fermentation to create carbonation and limits the alcohol level. These Little Beers, which Root beer is a member of, were considered acceptable for everyday consumption by everybody.

Traditionally Root Beer was, and is, a memer of the Beer family instead of the soda family.

Batwing Doors

Welcome to the official blog of Gunslinger Root Beers! My name is Brewmaster Jason, founder and chief Brewmaster of Gunslinger's (It's really a one horse show). Gunslinger's has been hand crafting and brewing home made Root Beers since late 2009. With a sincer desire to be as self-sufficient or self-reliant as possible I began to look into how to make my own sof drinks, specifically Root Beer. This quest took me from the internet to the bookstore to the Local Home Brew Store. Each stop broadened my understanding of the sof drink brewing process and finally, in the fall of 2009 I felt that I had enough basic information to get started - and there Gunslinger Root Beers was born.

As the name implies, Gunslinger Root Beers, deals only in brewing Root Beers. Why only Root Beers one might ask. The answer is, there is so much leeway with Root Beers versus other sodas. Root Beer, at its core essence, is nothing more than Sassafras or Sassafras like flavors. To this is added any and all possible flavors, hence why one commercial Root Beer can tast drastically different from another one - much more so than colas for example.


At Gunslinger we brew gourmet Root Beers adhereing to the belief that Root Beer must contain Sassafras - even if it's in minute, subtle tasts. In some brews Sassafras ay be the main ingredient - a traditional Root Beer, in other they may only have a hint of Sassafras, but all brews are by definition Root Beers. We naturally carbonate all brews using yeast. Yeast addes a flavor to the brew that cannot be matched in any other manner, the carbonation provided by the yeast is also stronger than that of forced carbonated beverages, and to be honest there is nothing better than a Root Beer that has been naturally carbonated.


This weblog hopefully will become a community. The intent is not to be "look at what I've done" but rather "I tried this and it turned out pretty good, why don't you try it." I want this to become a resource for those interested in home brewing Root Beers - yes there are many sites and sources for all things Root Beer but it taks a long time to sift to get to the brewing parts. Upcoming posts will include Root Beer History and Fun Facts, Recipes, Setting Up the Brewery, Basics, and just random thoughts that come while enjoying a cold, fizzy Root Beer.


Thanks for visiting and hope to see you around soon,