Making Root Beer at Home

In the 1950's, when I was a kid, my dad came home one day with the extract (I don't know where he got it). We made a batch of root beer in a pickle crock. We saved all the beer bottles we could find and recapped them. We left the bottles on a shelf in the garage and sure enough on a hot day the caps blew. We drank as much as we could as fast as we could. I remember my mom making us wash out the garage. She also made my dad promise he would not try home brewing again!

Yummy Yummy Yummy I've love in my tummy and I feel like loving you.....Root beer of course

I wanted to buy a root beer kit for my dad for a gift. He likes the trying of new things and I just like root beer. So, the suggestion of buying a kit for the plastic bottles/buckets, then trying different variations IS PERFECT.
Thanks for sharing.

Check out this site for some cool root beer ideas!
freerangerootbeer.com

That's not too bad of a place to get stuff from, and I had bought my gear about three years ago, so the price is about right considering the rising cost of materials...
Also, to save money after the first brewing, you can use bread yeast or ale yeast, which is sometimes cheaper than champange yeast. Also, champange yeast is used mainly because it flocculates(misspelled,,,,up late...it means the process of the yeast eating the sugar blahblahblah) on the bottom as opposed to the top like bread yeast. If you are a purist, you stick with what works, but the weird thing is that for different regions(meaning the humidity, temperature, altitude, etc) yeasts work different ways. So I would try using what comes with the brewing kit(withone warning in a sec), then try bread yeast next and see how that produces.
Okay, the warning.....make sure that if you use glass bottles, DO NOT let your bottles get over 73 degrees!!!! that goes for any type of drink that uses natural carbonation, with the exception of some beers. One of the reasons why you hear about the bottles going off like bombs is that people stick these things in places that are 70ish dgrees at night after they are done making the batch of soda, then after they go off to work, the closet or garage they have it in starts fluctuating in remperature, which affects the contents and puts undue stress on the bottles. At any rate, even after I place my stuff up for aging, I still wrap it up(without shaking) in a couple of layers of towels and have an old blanket above and beneath it, just in case it does go off. So if you don't have a place that is a consistent temperature, please just use plastic bottles. Yeah, it's not quite as cool, but it still produces a very tasty drink. (also, if you use the "Homebrew" brand of extract, use just a little less than twice the amount of extract to whatever the amount it says for you to use if you like a stong tasting root beer).
Okay, the three year old is hollering for me, so I hope this helps and wasn't too rambling :)

For newbies like me, a beer brewing kit might be a good idea. I found a site which sells such a kit... it costs $39 though!
http://www.homebrewers.com/category/winel/

Yeah, and I just realized.....the whole cup and a half thing? use a cup and a half of honey per two gals, as opposed to two cups of sugar per two gallons. Also, I suggested the brewmaking kit because honey ferments at a somewhat slower rate than regular sugar. not sure what the root beer would do in the whole "put it in the bottle and let it ferment" method, but I would suspect that you would make hand grenades....so use plastic bottles if you don't have the other stuff.

Thanks Matt! I must try this some day... I wonder how fresh root beer reall tastes like! :)

You can also try honey, but instead of using two cups of sugar for every two gallons, use about a cup and a half. You should also invest in one of the beer making kits(which have two plastic buckets, lid w/hole in top for airlock, airlock, racking tubes, and spouts). They usually run about 30 dollars. The honey recipie is pretty good; both my wife and two daughters go after it like it has heroin in it. It has a slightly spicy flavor to it. Also, the ginger does work, but you have to use whole ginger that has been grated then boiled into the mixture. Powdered ginger gives the drink a chemical flavor to it. If anyone has any questions, you can email me at trips_noodleboy@hotmail.com and I will happily share beer, soda, and mead recips....

Something tells me we should start a "Root Beer Wiki" to find the best root beer recipe! :P

Ginger isn't a bad idea. What about a small amount of hot pepper?

Sounds good... I'll wonder what I can do to improve the flavor... do you think Ginger will give it more kick? :)

Kevin,

I'm definitely going to start making my own root beer. Let's set up a rootbeer making contest.