I went to pour a glass of batch 5 yesterday and got a whole lotta foam and sputter and chunder, signaling the end of my first 3 gallon batch of root beer in my new kegerator. This makes me happy and sad at the same time. Happy, because it's a hobby that I really enjoy and have been able to consume over the period of a few months. Sad, because I wanted a glass of root beer to eat with my lunch!
So, I made batch 6 today:
2oz of Sassafras
3oz of saspirilla
.5oz of star annis
1oz wintergreen
2c organic white sugar
3c organic brown sugar
4 vanilla beans
1gal boiling water
1gal ice
1gal water
You know the routine. Boil water, add flavorings, add sugar slowly making sure to stir it in and dissolve it quickly (you don't want it carmelizing on the bottom of the pot). Total steeping time, about 7 minutes (however long it took to work in 5 cups of sugar.) Pour into a sanitized bowl with a sanitized fine wire mesh colindar, strain chunky bits. Put ice in sanitized keg, pour mixture over ice. Top off with more water. Put in kegerator and carbonate.
The ingredients this time around were from the bottom of the bin at the hippy food store where I get them. They weren't the most aromatic I've ever used. I've ordered a pound of sassafras bark and a pound of birch bark, so I'll get them fresh. I'll use that for the next batch.
I used sugar instead of honey this time. The last batch was _VERY_ predominantly honey flavored. I wanted to get back to tasting the sassafras, or in this case, like saspirilla.
I'll let y'all know how it comes out (if anyone is actually reading this. :)