Wednesday, July 02, 2008

TILASG - Root Beer

The soda culture here is crazy. At restaurants, soda comes in large portions with frequent refills. Every gas station has a soda fountain (in New York I didn't see even one). As a mom, I don't love that soda is the drink at every function. But, there are some good things about this too. I love that you can get root beer at every restaurant. AND, you can stop by ANY grocery store in the area and pick up root beer extract and a little dry-ice to brew your own at home. You can find the recipe here. Here's niece Sara basking in the root beer fog:

Speaking of root beer, a few weeks ago we helped our neighbor Juddy bottle root beer in his garage. He used a recipe that contained herbs like anise and vanilla to get a root beer result. Next, he mixed it in a large container then used a small hose to put it into used, sterilized Coke bottles.



Last, we used a bottle capper to cap the bottles.

There is yeast in the recipe to give it fizz, you have to let it sit for a few days to develop. The result? It was different . . . interesting. The yeast was a bit strong, next time we'll try Champagne yeast for a more subtle result.

5 comments:

LoGunns said...

When we were growing up my mom would make her own rootbeer and bottle it in those big green glass soda bottles. I don't remember even tasting the yeast (but I know it was in there). I wish she had held onto those big glass bottles.

Carrie said...

It seems like you guys have adjusted to the move just fine. Already full of new friends! The rootbeer sound fun. I've never done the real thing, I always rely on other people to do it. :)

Mandy Wollenzien said...

Yum root beer. I'll have to make some while I'm in Utah. Maybe for the 4th. I'm glad you guys are having so much fun with family.

Carrie said...

We just went to a family reunion for James' mom's side of the fam, and what did we have? That's right, homemade rootbeer! I'm not a big rootbeer fan, but I do enjoy the home brewed.

Mumsy said...

We have been talking about doing this for so long. I must do it! Fred's aunt used to make homemade root beer with yeast. I've been dying to try it.

And you are making many of us here in NY want to pack up and move to SG immediately!