Hires Big H Root Beer Extract - 12 Pack | Root Beer Soda & Dessert Flavoring Syrup for Homemade Sodas, Ice Cream Toppings & Baking Recipes

I grew up with home brewed root beer with the old original Hires extract. My grandma would make it in huge batches and bottle it in glass bottles and it would take about a week to carbonate. Man, I remember those summers with fondness. It had its own flavor, enhanced by the yeast, and I grew to love it, especially with Root Beer Floats!As an adult, I wanted to share that tradition with my children, so I looked into it and found the old recipe. Unfortunately the original Hires extract is no longer made. So I searched out the various brands of true extract available and there aren't many. Zatarains is fairly good, though it has a really licoricey flavor that I'm not as fond of. Rainbow Homebrew also makes one that is pretty good, but their bottles are small and fairly expensive. Then I found Hires Big H. They aren't the original Hires I grew up with, but the flavor is darn close and the instructions on the bottle are identical to my grandma's old recipe. Also the price is good.But the good news is that I don't have to make it in 4 gallon batches and find glass bottles and caps anymore. There is a really simple recipe I found that works GREAT and is ready in just 24 hours. It's simple and inexpensive and fun to do with my kids.Here goes. What you need is:1 2-liter bottle (brand doesn't matter. just make sure it's empty and clean before you use it. Contamination from bacteria will make it taste funny.)1.5 cups sugar. (Or for a low calorie version, use 1/2 cup sugar and a cup (or equivalent) of granulated splenda or stevia. I prefer a mix of the two. It carbonates just fine)1/4 tsp yeast (simple bread yeast works, though some prefer champagne yeast which is harder to find)1.5 tbsp of Rootbeer ExtractfunnelAll you do is use a funnel to pour the sugar in the empty 2-liter bottle. Add the 1/4 tsp yeast, Add the 1.5 tbsp extract and fill to the top with cool water. The yeast is sensitive to heat, so warm water can be too warm and kill it. I just stick with cool water. Filtered water is best, but tap works. Then screw the cap on, shake it up and lay the bottle on its side for 18-24 hours. The bottle should stay at room temperature. It will take forever to carbonate if cold and will die if the heat gets too high.You can tell that the process is working if the bottle becomes tight. If you squeeze it and it's hard as a drum, it's carbonated. If you leave it too long the pressure will just keep building so take care when opening it that you do it slowly or you'll have a root beer fountain.Once it is carbonated, refrigerate it. I will sometimes make a batch and put it in a cooler full of ice to chill it quickly.Chilling the root beer slows down the carbonation process greatly and make it less likely to erupt with suds.Also if you want smaller bottles, you can use this 2-liter recipe, mix it up, but instead of sitting it on its side for a day, fill up empty 20 oz bottles. Each 2-liter does about 4 20 Oz bottles. Then just lay those bottles on their sides and you'll end up with the same results a day later.Enjoy! You'll get excited by how simple it is and if you're like me, you'll want to experiment with carbonating other beverages by adding yeast. (Hint: Apple juice is pretty good, though it tastes beery. Chocolate milk was a mistake.)P.S. for those worried about the fermentation process, you will not get drunk on homebrewed root beer made this way. The yeast does not have enough time to produce any measurable levels of alcohol. I read an article by a professor who did the math and it would take well over two gallons to equal the alcohol in a single beer.