Thursday, July 9, 2009

DIY Rootbeer

So Becky's post today had a great DIY wedding gift idea. And she encouraged us all to go visit her friends Kimba at A Soft Place to Land and maybe even take part in her DIY party.

I've been meaning to share my homemade Rootbeer recipe with you all since some of you were asking about it.

So Voila'! I'm going to combine the two.

Actually, I should first confess that this rootbeer recipe is not my own. A couple of good friends from church shared it with me. And I also have to say that it is so GOOD!!!! And COLD!!!!

So, here is what you do.

You start with a 5 gallon thermal container.
One important thing to remember is that once you make root beer in this container - that's all it's good for anymore because forever more after anything else you put in there will have a vague root beer flavor. And I don't know about you but I don't think I would like my water or tea to have a vague root beer taste. Root beer flavor must be strong!

So, the next step is sugar. Lots of sugar. This almost stopped me from making it because I couldn't imagine drinking this much sugar. But then I figured once a year is okay.

Add 5 pounds of sugar to your container. Yes, you heard me right. Five pounds of sugar.

Okay, have you recovered? Next you add a whole 2 ounce bottle of Root Beer concentrate. You can buy it at the grocery store with the vanilla and almond extract bottles.
My camera didn't focus to well on this one - sorry!

Then you add water until the container is 3/4's of the way full and stir it until that 5 pounds of sugar dissolves.

Now comes the fun part. You need to add about 7-8 pounds of dry ice. I don't understand what dry ice really is or why it does what it does to root beer but I'm telling you - it's like magic. Be sure to have the kids around for this part - you will really impress them.
Be very careful not to touch the dry ice with your hands - it will burn you. It's that cold. So we wore some oven mitts to work with it and that worked just fine. Your concoction will smoke and sound like it's boiling! It's really crazy. I topped if off with a little more water but by this time it's hard to see what you really have going on because of all the smoke. Or steam, Or whatever it is.

Now just put the lid on and wait about 10 minutes. Because in about 10 minutes you will have the COLDEST rootbeer ever. The dry ice not only makes it cold but it also carbonates it. Weird, I know.

We drank all five gallons that day. And I've tried not to think about the sugar ever since. But I would do it again. Oh yes I would!

13 comments:

Donnetta said...

Oh, thank you for sharing this recipe!! Just think of making this and at the same time make homemade vanilla ice cream....

YUM!!

nikkipolani said...

You're right. That is some serious sugar -- one pound per gallon. It sure does look cool "cooking" away in that Igloo!

Dawn said...

Yikes - sounds good, but scary sweet!

I missed the last post somehow - such fun. I can't believe she's almost walking already. There's nothing more fun that watching a new walker - except watching two!

As for verbal skills - the littles have their very own language that they speak to each other - we don't have a clue! Katie wakes up every morning pointing and asking, "Whassat?" so one of these days she should break forth with a complete vocabulary!

Kristi said...

This sounds incredible! My husband absolutely loves root beer. I am going to have to try this. Thanks so much for the recipe!

gail@more than a song said...

Your 4th of July picnic looks like a success, great pics below! And how fun to make your own root beer!

Fawnda@Fireflies and Jellybeans said...

That is SO COOL! Thanks for sharing!

frillsfluffandtrucks said...

That sounds soooo good...but I just can't bring myself to do the five pounds of sugar...but it is tempting!

~ Sarah

Victoria said...

Wow, the recipe sounds bizarre! It looks like it would definitely be a fun thing to make and tastes great to boot!

Southern Fried Gal said...

Seriously cool. I may have to try this just to say I did. I'm sure my 5yo will love it, too! Thanks for sharing!

Randi~Dukes and Duchesses said...

That sounds so fun ... what a yummy and entertaining summer activity. We're definitely going to try it. Thanks for sharing!

Jena said...

The dry ice is what makes it carbonated. You can add dry ice to Kool-Aid and you would have a fizzy drink. This would be neat to make around Halloween and call it a witch's brew (Halloween is just around the corner - my son loves root beer - we might just have to give it a try). Thanks for the recipe.

A Dusty Frame said...

I thought dry ice was toxic?
I looked it up and it said there is food grade dry ice;) Good to know.

We've made rootbeer in a 2 liter bottle before. It has to sit around for awhile to make the carbonation but it's pretty cool.

LIzzie

DealFinder said...

So where do you get food grade dry ice?