Homemade Ozark Rootbeer recipe

2 oz birch beer extract
1 honey
1 cup grade b maple syrup
10 oz root beer extract
1 cup blackstrap molasses
1 gallon sugar (approx 8 pounds)

Mix all ingredients in a keg, add water to fill keg, carbonate, drink. Some comments regarding the recipe: I thought the molasses taste was a bit harsh, I will try regular molasses next time and perhaps use a little less as well. I will try substituting 2 oz of sasparilla extract for 2 oz of the rootbeer extract. In any case, you can mix the ingredients to your taste. This recipe produces a strong tasting rootbeer with about half the sweetness of most commercial rootbeers (warning: you will want to clean your draft lines after dispensing this root beer, it leaves a flavor behind). It was extremely popular with the underage college crowd because the rootbeer was served just like draft beer. You can obtain the extracts in 2 oz bottles at most homebrewing shops. In addition, you can buy bulk extracts through restaurant suppliers, the one brand I know of is 'Universal'. While I artifically carbonated my rootbeer (for both legal & practical reasons) you could ferment it to get carbonation. There was an alcoholic rootbeer at the Great American Beer Festival, I talked with the brewmaster who made it, and it is similar to my recipe, but with the addition of a substantial amount of malt extract to increase the fermentables. His rootbeer was in the 6% alcohol by weight range, and tasted very good on it's own, but didn't go well with drinking lots of regular beer.

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