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,