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Recipe help wanted: Alcoholic sarsaparilla
I have written a bit of a discussion of what I did (or as it seems, what I did wrong).
So I have a hankering for alco sars and have not yet been able to nail it. I've tried "Tusker Draught Root Beer" at the Lighthouse Tavern, Port Adelaide :super: and it is great. It is the benchmark for stuff I'd like to brew and enjoy at home. It is mild at first but builds on the palette and lingers. It is very Moorish and would put a horn on a jellyfish. I recommend everyone try a good old pint of it as a small glass just isn't enough (neither is one pint really!) I'd love to be able to make a good alco sars brew to enjoy at home (and score heaps of points with SWMBO and friends). :icon_drunk: :icon_chickcheers:
So countless hours searching the net for recipes yields a lot of root beer recipes out of the States that are non-alcoholic. I can't find a decent alco sars or root beer recipe!
I've looked at the ingredients in commercial non-alco sarsaparilla such as Bundaberg Brewed Drinks Sarsaparilla "contains no artificial colours Traditionally brewed to a genuine old recipe from real sarsaparilla root, licorice root, vanilla beans and molasses".
Being that I used to live in QLD I am familiar with Bundy Brewed Drinks and am sure they used to have a slightly different Sarsaparilla drink that they used to call "Horehound", maybe they decided it didn't sound PC enough anymore! Probably sounds a bit like "Milf Hunter" or such. I think BBD Horehound was more of a Root Beer flavour (which I belive is slightly different to sarsaparilla) but either way I like both flavours.
I have also noted that Sarsaparilla flavour does not seem to be as popluar in South Australia as it is in Qld. I have not yet found Sarsaparilla flavoured cordial in SA and there a not many brands or much quantity of Sarsaparilla softdrink stocked in Adelaide supermarkets. Just in case any of the free settlers get upset, I am not grizzling, I just making an observation
So I have purchased from America, liquid sarsaparilla extract (smells great and makes me want to roll in it but is quite expensive) and root beer extract powder. I have also bought from a spice wholesaler in Qld: powdered liquorice root (tastes great on sampling) and powdered sarsaparilla root (does not taste very sarsaparillary).
On the net I found a promising recipe in BYO magazine and had a go at it that did not turn out well at all (recipe below with my comments in red).
The guts of it are that it was too bitter, a bit salty, not sweet enough, had some nasty taints of lactose and a few gritty bits and seemed to be more work than it probably should be.
Linky to BYO page for copyright acknowledgement (or read below)
Real Root Beer
Author Scott Russell
Issue October 1997
5 gallons, partial mash
Ingredients:
2 lbs. crushed mild ale malt
1 lb. dark crystal malt, 120 Lovibond
0.25 lb. black malt
0.25 lb. chocolate malt
3 lbs. unhopped dark dry malt extract
0.5 lb. dark unsulphured molasses Apparently 'unsulphured' is a lighter coloured style. I did not find this out until after I brewed. I can say that all the molasses I came across is dark and salty. I thought 'molasses' would be important for colour of the brew. I'd probably use golden syrup next time or dark brown sugar, or both.
4 oz. maltodextrin powder
1 oz. Cluster hop pellets (7% alpha acid), for 60 min. I was hesitant about this so went half at 60 mins and half at 30 mins. Even so it was way too bitter. I reckon dry hopping for aroma would work better, maybe Hallertau whole hop flowers? Or maybe no hops at all.
0.5 oz. sassafras bark Did not add
0.5 oz. sarsaparilla bark Added powdered root. It did not settle out fully with crash chilling and I then had to filter/strain it. It still had unappealing gritty bits in the brew.
1 oz. dried wintergreen leaves Did not add
0.5 oz. shredded licorice root Used powdered root. See comments re: sarsaparilla root powder.
pinch sweet gale (optional) Did not add
pinch star anise (optional) You betchya I did! I added a couple of whole star anise.
pinch mace (optional) Did not add
pinch coriander (optional) Did not add
dash black cherry juice (optional) Did not add
10 to 14 g. dry ale yeast I used a smack pack of 1080 (I think)
2 oz. lactose powder I don't think I like this. Maybe it is just me but I can taste it in the brew and don't like it.
7/8 cup corn sugar
0.5 cup spice tea (pinch wintergreen, sarsaparilla, licorice root) Used sars & liquorice root powders with a splash of Pernod
corn sugar for priming
I also added a couple of teaspoons of vanilla bean pod guts.
Step by Step:
In 1 gal. water mash crystal, black, chocolate, and mild ale malts at 155 F for 60 minutes. Sparge with 1.5 gals. at 170 F. Add 1 gal. water to kettle and bring to a boil. Add dark dry malt, maltodextrin, and molasses. Stir well to avoid scorching. Add Cluster hops and boil 60 minutes. At kettle knockout steep your spice combination (in a mesh bag) as wort cools. Pour into fermenter and top up to 5.25 gals. Cool to 75 F and pitch ale yeast. Ferment seven to 10 days at about 70 F, rack to secondary, and condition at 60 F for two weeks. Prime with corn sugar, add strained spice tea (1/2 cup boiling water over spices for at least a half hour), and bottle. Age two to three weeks cool (55 F).
Can't remember the OG & FG's but could find them if anyone wants them. As it was in the cooler months, I brewed it in a turned off fridge with a heater and 'tempmate' type of device which I think from memory was set for 19oC?
Alternatives and Options:
Non-alcoholic creamy version: Instead of fermenting the wort, cool to 75 F, substitute 5 to 7 g. dry champagne yeast for the ale yeast, and bottle immediately. Store at 70 F for two or three days, then refrigerate. Follow these instructions exactly, otherwise you risk exploding bottles. You may also use ale yeast, which is somewhat safer because it will not continue to ferment in cold temperatures. However, the bubbles will not have that fine champagne quality. A safer way to carbonate: Get a CO2 system and either put your root beer in 5-gal. soda kegs (force carbonated) or get Carbonater-brand couplings and bottle in 2-liter PET bottles (force carbonated at 25 to 28 psi, chilled and shaken well).
End of recipe.
Some of my discussion:
I put some in PET bottles and the rest into a keg. I learnt some interesting things.
#1 Do not put 3 carbonation drops in with this brew in a PET bottle. They don't explode but they are like foamy volcanoes or I suspect foamy rockets if you let go of them when you opened. I thought it needed sweetening to balance the bitter hops hence 3 drops.
#2 I had an 'issue' with my keg setup and accidently pumped a small amount of sars into half a keg of English Bitter. The EB tasted great then! I then would pour a bit of sars into a glass and then fill up with the EB as Jamie would say "happy days". When the EB ran out I could not stomach the sars by itself and tipped it onto the lawn.
So the basis for this BYO mag brew seems to be malts for colour, depth and fermentables and then add some flavourings. Bundaberg Brewed Drinks (BBD) don't use a grain base for fermentables, they seem to just use 'molasses' which I am betting would be the sweet golden syrup kind and not the salty molasses kind. I reckon you could colour it up with some caramelised sugar liquid or such.
I am not sure if I will try and simplify it by not mashing malts, perhaps I could make it from golden syrup and some DME and some of the liquid sars extract and touch of vanilla to go for more of a BBD style?
I am happy to share details of where I bought my ingredients if anyone wants to know.
So is there an Alco Sars genius out there who can help me on my alco sars quest?
I have written a bit of a discussion of what I did (or as it seems, what I did wrong).
So I have a hankering for alco sars and have not yet been able to nail it. I've tried "Tusker Draught Root Beer" at the Lighthouse Tavern, Port Adelaide :super: and it is great. It is the benchmark for stuff I'd like to brew and enjoy at home. It is mild at first but builds on the palette and lingers. It is very Moorish and would put a horn on a jellyfish. I recommend everyone try a good old pint of it as a small glass just isn't enough (neither is one pint really!) I'd love to be able to make a good alco sars brew to enjoy at home (and score heaps of points with SWMBO and friends). :icon_drunk: :icon_chickcheers:
So countless hours searching the net for recipes yields a lot of root beer recipes out of the States that are non-alcoholic. I can't find a decent alco sars or root beer recipe!
I've looked at the ingredients in commercial non-alco sarsaparilla such as Bundaberg Brewed Drinks Sarsaparilla "contains no artificial colours Traditionally brewed to a genuine old recipe from real sarsaparilla root, licorice root, vanilla beans and molasses".
Being that I used to live in QLD I am familiar with Bundy Brewed Drinks and am sure they used to have a slightly different Sarsaparilla drink that they used to call "Horehound", maybe they decided it didn't sound PC enough anymore! Probably sounds a bit like "Milf Hunter" or such. I think BBD Horehound was more of a Root Beer flavour (which I belive is slightly different to sarsaparilla) but either way I like both flavours.
I have also noted that Sarsaparilla flavour does not seem to be as popluar in South Australia as it is in Qld. I have not yet found Sarsaparilla flavoured cordial in SA and there a not many brands or much quantity of Sarsaparilla softdrink stocked in Adelaide supermarkets. Just in case any of the free settlers get upset, I am not grizzling, I just making an observation
So I have purchased from America, liquid sarsaparilla extract (smells great and makes me want to roll in it but is quite expensive) and root beer extract powder. I have also bought from a spice wholesaler in Qld: powdered liquorice root (tastes great on sampling) and powdered sarsaparilla root (does not taste very sarsaparillary).
On the net I found a promising recipe in BYO magazine and had a go at it that did not turn out well at all (recipe below with my comments in red).
The guts of it are that it was too bitter, a bit salty, not sweet enough, had some nasty taints of lactose and a few gritty bits and seemed to be more work than it probably should be.
Linky to BYO page for copyright acknowledgement (or read below)
Real Root Beer
Author Scott Russell
Issue October 1997
5 gallons, partial mash
Ingredients:
2 lbs. crushed mild ale malt
1 lb. dark crystal malt, 120 Lovibond
0.25 lb. black malt
0.25 lb. chocolate malt
3 lbs. unhopped dark dry malt extract
0.5 lb. dark unsulphured molasses Apparently 'unsulphured' is a lighter coloured style. I did not find this out until after I brewed. I can say that all the molasses I came across is dark and salty. I thought 'molasses' would be important for colour of the brew. I'd probably use golden syrup next time or dark brown sugar, or both.
4 oz. maltodextrin powder
1 oz. Cluster hop pellets (7% alpha acid), for 60 min. I was hesitant about this so went half at 60 mins and half at 30 mins. Even so it was way too bitter. I reckon dry hopping for aroma would work better, maybe Hallertau whole hop flowers? Or maybe no hops at all.
0.5 oz. sassafras bark Did not add
0.5 oz. sarsaparilla bark Added powdered root. It did not settle out fully with crash chilling and I then had to filter/strain it. It still had unappealing gritty bits in the brew.
1 oz. dried wintergreen leaves Did not add
0.5 oz. shredded licorice root Used powdered root. See comments re: sarsaparilla root powder.
pinch sweet gale (optional) Did not add
pinch star anise (optional) You betchya I did! I added a couple of whole star anise.
pinch mace (optional) Did not add
pinch coriander (optional) Did not add
dash black cherry juice (optional) Did not add
10 to 14 g. dry ale yeast I used a smack pack of 1080 (I think)
2 oz. lactose powder I don't think I like this. Maybe it is just me but I can taste it in the brew and don't like it.
7/8 cup corn sugar
0.5 cup spice tea (pinch wintergreen, sarsaparilla, licorice root) Used sars & liquorice root powders with a splash of Pernod
corn sugar for priming
I also added a couple of teaspoons of vanilla bean pod guts.
Step by Step:
In 1 gal. water mash crystal, black, chocolate, and mild ale malts at 155 F for 60 minutes. Sparge with 1.5 gals. at 170 F. Add 1 gal. water to kettle and bring to a boil. Add dark dry malt, maltodextrin, and molasses. Stir well to avoid scorching. Add Cluster hops and boil 60 minutes. At kettle knockout steep your spice combination (in a mesh bag) as wort cools. Pour into fermenter and top up to 5.25 gals. Cool to 75 F and pitch ale yeast. Ferment seven to 10 days at about 70 F, rack to secondary, and condition at 60 F for two weeks. Prime with corn sugar, add strained spice tea (1/2 cup boiling water over spices for at least a half hour), and bottle. Age two to three weeks cool (55 F).
Can't remember the OG & FG's but could find them if anyone wants them. As it was in the cooler months, I brewed it in a turned off fridge with a heater and 'tempmate' type of device which I think from memory was set for 19oC?
Alternatives and Options:
Non-alcoholic creamy version: Instead of fermenting the wort, cool to 75 F, substitute 5 to 7 g. dry champagne yeast for the ale yeast, and bottle immediately. Store at 70 F for two or three days, then refrigerate. Follow these instructions exactly, otherwise you risk exploding bottles. You may also use ale yeast, which is somewhat safer because it will not continue to ferment in cold temperatures. However, the bubbles will not have that fine champagne quality. A safer way to carbonate: Get a CO2 system and either put your root beer in 5-gal. soda kegs (force carbonated) or get Carbonater-brand couplings and bottle in 2-liter PET bottles (force carbonated at 25 to 28 psi, chilled and shaken well).
End of recipe.
Some of my discussion:
I put some in PET bottles and the rest into a keg. I learnt some interesting things.
#1 Do not put 3 carbonation drops in with this brew in a PET bottle. They don't explode but they are like foamy volcanoes or I suspect foamy rockets if you let go of them when you opened. I thought it needed sweetening to balance the bitter hops hence 3 drops.
#2 I had an 'issue' with my keg setup and accidently pumped a small amount of sars into half a keg of English Bitter. The EB tasted great then! I then would pour a bit of sars into a glass and then fill up with the EB as Jamie would say "happy days". When the EB ran out I could not stomach the sars by itself and tipped it onto the lawn.
So the basis for this BYO mag brew seems to be malts for colour, depth and fermentables and then add some flavourings. Bundaberg Brewed Drinks (BBD) don't use a grain base for fermentables, they seem to just use 'molasses' which I am betting would be the sweet golden syrup kind and not the salty molasses kind. I reckon you could colour it up with some caramelised sugar liquid or such.
I am not sure if I will try and simplify it by not mashing malts, perhaps I could make it from golden syrup and some DME and some of the liquid sars extract and touch of vanilla to go for more of a BBD style?
I am happy to share details of where I bought my ingredients if anyone wants to know.
So is there an Alco Sars genius out there who can help me on my alco sars quest?