Homemade Root Beer

I've always loved family traditions. It's great to anticipate the events, activities, decorations and food that come year after year with predictability.

Our family adopted the German celebration to mark the beginning of fall.

OKTOBERFEST!

My family got to enjoy some of the festivities each year while we lived in Germany, and since getting married Jeremy and I have been particularly keen to continue to celebrate the fest.

Generally our celebrations will include some assortment of the following:

• Bratwurst
• Senf (That's mustard, but not the sissy yellow American stuff, it must be brown, speckled, and contain horseradish. . . mmm. . . )
• Kaiser rolls
• Sauerkraut
• Lebkuchen
• Rootbeer

And the most fun kind of root beer is homemade! We enjoyed some this past weekend at our annual celebration.


We've tried homemade rootbeer a number of times, and have found a recipe that gives us good success.

1 bottle Rootbeer extract (2 oz)
5 gallons water
5 pounds sugar
5 pounds dry ice

It's easy to remember the 1-5-5-5 recipe, but usually we only actually use 4 pounds of sugar. (And this time, since it was a small party we halved the recipe.)  Also, we've tried substituting some of the sugar for the more natural, but very flavorful honey.  (Either way at least it isn't high fructose corn syrup.)  I'm sure maple syrup though would be interesting as well, and one day I will make my own root beer extract from my own collection of roots and barks and spices.  But until then. . .

I boiled the sugar in part of the water to dissolve it. This is the first year I've done this but feel it's necessary because the sugar never fully dissolves in cold water.


The water will hold more fizz if it's cold to begin with. So chill it and pour the water, and sugar water into the cooler.

We used some sassafras flavoring this year for the heck of it as well.

Pour flavorings into the water and stir.

Add dry ice and RUN!!! I mean put a lid on it.

You need to make sure the vessel you're using is large enough that the syrup doesn't start splashing and bubbling out over the sides when you drop the dry ice in. (We and the kitchen floor of "The Burrow" learned that one the hard way.) Also, if you're afraid of your cooler blowing up you can release pressure every once in a while. In about 20 minutes, you have delicious homemade rootbeer.

And I know that our kids will remember this tradition!