Old School Apothecary Style Label
You would think that making a root beer flavoured beer might be something strange. After all root beer is traditionally a soft drink and a little too sweet to be considered as a beer flavour. But there is a way to take all the best aspects of root beer, namely the sarsaparilla aroma and infuse it into an interesting and not at all sweet beverage.
The first step is actually obtaining some Sarsaparilla. You want the real thing, not root beer extract or any sort of artificial flavour, that is key to making this beer successfully. Sarsaparilla is generally available at health food stores and resembles crumbled wood. When you open the package and smell it you can understand immediately where root beer gets its distinctive aroma from.
You can make a tea from Sarsaparilla and you’ll get all the same aromas but strangely very little flavour. Root beer is actually made from a variety of ingredients including anise, vanilla, sassafras bark and honey. To successfully make Sarsaparilla Ale, you want the aroma and you want some flavour but no too much. Best way to achieve this is by adding a couple more ingredients, namely bourbon and honey. The bourbon gives it a little complexity and the honey adds a touch of sweetness needed to balance it all out.
The base beer in creating this recipe is an American Amber Ale – but this version is light on the aroma hops at the end, but still in keeping with the BJCP style guidelines. The key to the root beer aroma is how you add the Sarsaparilla. It’s best to have at least 2 ounces and split in half. The first half will be added to the near the end of the boil to extract as much flavour as possible.
The second half will be used during secondary fermentation. At this stage it has to be made into a tea, to sterilize it and extract some of the flavour and aromas. Use about 500ml or 2 cups of water that has been boiled for at least 5 minutes. Add the remaining Sarsaparilla and allow it to cool to room temperature. To avoid contamination put it in a mason jar with the lid on tightly. Once it has cooled add the entire mixture to the fermenter and let it age for another 5 days.
Sarsaparilla tea in a mason jar and the base amber ale, prior to secondary fermentation, is on the right.
Just before kegging the beer, add 3/4 of cup of bourbon and about a 1/4 cup of honey. It’s best to put both in one container and mix them together, the honey will dissolve into the beer faster. If you are opting to bottle the beer use the honey as your priming sugar and add the right amount for the batch you are bottling.
For those of you wishing to give this one a shot my recipe is below. I made this one and served it at first People’s Pint Event at the Gladstone Hotel:
Old School Sarsparilla Amber Ale
American Amber Ale (10 B)
Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Ingredients
8 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM)
1 lbs Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM)
12.8 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt – 60L (60.0 SRM)
9.6 oz Munich Malt – 20L (20.0 SRM)
6.4 oz Carafoam (2.0 SRM)
6.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM)
4.0 oz Munich Malt – 10L (10.0 SRM)
1.6 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] – Boil 60.0 min
0.62 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] – Boil 30.0 min
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins)
8.00 oz Agave Nectar (Boil 5.0 mins)
1.00 oz Sarsaparilla (Boil 5.0 mins)
1.0 pkg Safale American (US-05)
1.00 oz Sarsaparilla mixed into 2 cups of boiling water to make a Tea (Secondary 5.0 days)
3/4 Cup Bourbon
1/4 Cup Honey (if kegging)
Est Original Gravity: 1.061
SG Est Final Gravity: 1.013
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.2 %
Bitterness: 32.6 IBUs
Est Color: 12.6 SRM
Mash Steps
Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Mash Temp 152.0 F – 60 min
Mash In Add 14.41 qt of water at 163.7 F
Batch sparge with 2 steps (2.03gal, 4.25gal) of 168.0 F water
Schoolhouse Craft Beer 