How to Make Homemade Root Beer

I think virtually everyone can agree that root beer is a very specific and acquired taste. Admittedly, I never acquired it. Imagine my surprise to learn that my family actually has a generations-old recipe for homemade root beer. They used to drink it all the time. Wait! What? Really?

THE HISTORY OF ROOT BEER

Where in the heck did root beer come from anyway? And, more importantly, why is it called 'beer'?

Let me get this straight? Before root beer was consumed as a soda, it was an herbal remedy? No wonder I don't like it. That's like shotgunning Robitussin.

But, I'll admit it, there are tons of folks- many of which are limbs on my family tree- who love it.

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HOW TO MAKE ROOT BEER AT HOME

My great grandfather apparently had a very popular recipe for root beer. My mom recalls him making it for them when she was a kid and she recently found my late grandmother's copy of that recipe.

Here it is!

Judy Quinn

Okay, my grandmother's handwriting is legible enough, I suppose. Her penmanship isn't entirely of the 'serial killer' variety. But let me type that recipe out for you.

HOMEMADE ROOT BEER

5 lbs of sugar

6 ounces of cake fresh yeast

6 gallons of lukewarm water

2 ounces of root beer extract

Now, you be asking the same question I thought of when I saw this ingredient list. I wondered, "Where in the heck can you get root beer extract?"

WHERE TO BUY ROOT BEER EXTRACT

I did a quick search on my Kroger app. It yielded exactly zero results. However, Amazon gave me a bunch of options and brands. In fact, there's a brand called Watkins that's packed in a 2-ounce bottle. That's exactly the amount my great grandfather's recipe calls for. If you're curious about the insane variety of root beer extract brands, you can CLICK HERE! You'll be amazed how many are available.

When you've rounded up all the necessary ingredients, here's what you do. You mix them all together and, according to my grandmother's handwriting, you 'stir good."

Then, let it stand at 70 degrees. Then, you chill it at 45 degrees. After you've chilled it, you can serve and enjoy!

Check that! YOU can enjoy it. Much to the dismay of my family heritage, I am going to pass.

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LOOK: Best Beers From Every State

To find the best beer in each state and Washington D.C., Stacker analyzed January 2020 data from BeerAdvocate, a website that gathers user scores for beer in real-time. BeerAdvocate makes its determinations by compiling consumer ratings for all 50 states and Washington D.C. and applying a weighted rank to each. The weighted rank pulls the beer toward the list's average based on the number of ratings it has and aims to allow lesser-known beers to increase in rank. Only beers with at least 10 rankings to be considered; we took it a step further to only include beers with at least 100 user rankings in our gallery. Keep reading to find out what the best beer is in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C.

Gallery Credit: Angela Underwood