Beer is a common beverage which is enjoyed by adult people globally to either relax or to enjoy at parties.Every beer’s alcoholic and non-alcoholic content range varies. If you have read Homer’s Odyssey, then you will get an idea of how old the tradition is of making such beverages for special occasions and even as medication.In America, root beer was a probiotic soft drink which was enjoyed by native people for health reasons. In 1875, Charles Elmer Hires’ root beer officially began selling commercially as root tea. Later, to expand the beer brand’s business, he renamed it ‘root beer’ in 1876. In 1893, the non-alcoholic version of root beer became successful in its commercial trade.In 1919, in the root beer market, Roy Allen partnered with Frank Wright to start the brand A & W Root Beer. In 1924, this company rose to great heights and became one of the world’s top company and brands to sell root beer. It was later in the 1960s that the Food and Drug Administration banned the use of root beer because its ingredients, sarsaparilla and sassafras, caused cancer.Now, the commercial use of sarsaparilla and sassafras in root beer in bottles is illegal. Root beer is often made by home brewers without using sarsaparilla and sassafras. They have modified the recipe by using safrole-free sassafras extract and not using sarsaparilla. Other ingredients such as vanilla, molasses, soda, winter grass, and caramel are used in different recipes of root beer.If you enjoy reading this article about root beer, then do read about some surprising and interesting fun facts articles about how yeast is made and how sea glass is made.What is root beer?Root beer is a unique American style sweet drink with herbal root flavors which began trending among beverages from the colonial time.Root beer is named after the herbal root ingredients that were used for brewing by brewers. The usage of different herbs and roots such as dandelion, ginger, and safrole-free sassafras extract, has given the beverage its name. Earlier, root beer was the most common drink which was easily made by home brewers. However, in the 1960s, the homemade root beer was banned from commercial use due to some of its harmful ingredients, such as sassafras and sarsaparilla root, which were thought to cause cancer.Homemade root beer was a probiotic soft drink with a low alcohol content made with starter culture such as yeast added for brewing and refined cane sugar to enhance flavor. Because of the high concentration of artificial flavors in its bottles, it has evolved into a carbonated hard drink rather than a probiotic soft drink. For brewing, molasses, vanilla, caramel, maple sugar, and carbonated soda, are used in the recipe. This homemade root beer was originally named root tea.How can you make root beer at home?Root beer is an old-fashioned homemade herbal drink which is quite an easy sweet drink recipe to make at home with some herbs, roots, bark, flowers, leaves, sugar syrup, and ginger buds. You just need some patience to make and enjoy this bubbly brew of root beer.There are many homemade root beer recipes available on the internet because, nowadays, commercial root beer users have made it a modern root beer based on traditional root beer recipes, and root beer is carbonated using soda rather than culturing root beer with herbal roots because of the ban on root beer in the 1960s due to the toxic ingredient safrole found in the sassafras root. Flavors are being added. However, if you want to make a traditional root beer, then it can be made with just three easy steps.All you need is some patience as you need to wait for the drink to brew for a few days. The very first thing you need to do is to mix or infuse herbs such as safrole-free sassafras root extract, sarsaparilla root, dandelion root, and ginger. You need to boil all the herbs in boiling water until the time comes that their pleasant, aromatic fragrance does not start to dissolve or spread in the air from the brew. The second step is to add the sugar or sugar syrup extract and starter culture such as yeast to the brew to add taste or flavor to it. Third, you transfer the brew to a bottle to ferment, and all the sugar syrup added for taste will go away on its own once the fermentation process starts. After a few days, you will notice that your root beer has some bubbles and fizz in it.Always remember that the root beer recipe is as easy to follow as if you are making a tea. Use cold water, only add safrole-free sassafras root extract for good flavor, and use a good sugar syrup such as maple or coconut sugar, or honey, as using unrefined cane sugar might increase your calorie intake. You need to add starter culture only when the brew cools down to room temperature. Use flip-top bottles. The fermentation process is always faster and better in a warm place, so, put the bottles in a warm place in your kitchen.NOTE: You must avoid using sassafras root and sarsaparilla because their commercial usage is banned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In the United Kingdom these ingredients are banned. Sassafras has high carcinogenic effects and research done on rats resulted in rats getting liver cancer. You can instead use some artificial flavors such as vanilla beans, molasses, birch bark, wintergreen, dog grass, soda, or safrole-free sassafras extract, while making this tasty brew. The recipe for the beverage, root beer, has evolved over a period of time throughout root beer’s history.What are the ingredients in root beer?Root beer ingredients have varied from the time it was discovered in history because some of its ingredients were considered to induce death cells in the human body and were cancerous.Key ingredients of the modern version of root beer for brewing are nutmeg, cinnamon, wintergreen, molasses, licorice root, sweet birch bark, honey, sugar, safrole-free sassafras extract, vanilla extract, soybean protein, carbonated soda, black cherry bark, and caramel. Caramel is added to enhance flavor and give the beverage a brown color.Most home brewers have started to make their root beers from ingredients of modern versions of root beers because of the ban on the usage of sassafras and sarsaparilla by the FDA. Key ingredients of the traditional version of root beer are sassafras for flavor, sarsaparilla for color, ginger for good cardiovascular health, licorice for sweetness and dandelion root to support liver health and reduce the bitter taste of the root beer.The usage of sassafras roots and sarsaparilla in recipes of different alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages is banned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These days, few brewers are increasing the alcoholic content of the beverage. Otherwise, root beer is not all bad.What is the alcoholic content of root beer?The traditional root beer contained only 2% of alcohol, while modern root beer is now, many times, being manipulated with ingredients to increase the alcoholic amount in the beverage.In old times, when root beer recipes were made using traditional methods, they had a very low amount of alcohol due to the natural use of ingredients and starter cultures. However, modern day recipes have increased the percentage of alcohol. Root beer recipes have evolved over a period of time and new ingredients are being added and removed by home brewers, such as adding caramel to give a brown color to the drink. So, the alcohol amount might vary from brewer to brewer depending on what methods and processes they are using to make the beverage.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for How is root beer made? then why not take a look at How is quorn made? or How is propane made?
Beer is a common beverage which is enjoyed by adult people globally to either relax or to enjoy at parties.
