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| Drinks | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Thu May 12th, 2011 10:13 pm |
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1st Post |
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Hellcat Member 
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Don't know if anyone is interested or not, but Stephen Cresswell lists some historical drinks in his book Homemade Root Beer, Soda, and Pop. There are several recipes in the book that date to the were or before including a lemon beer from 1861, a 17th century birch beer, a molasses beer from 1853 and a pumpkin ale from 1771.
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| Posted: Fri May 13th, 2011 01:50 am |
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2nd Post |
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Albert Sailhorst Member 
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Thanks, Helcat!!....One of my other hobbies (besides CW reenacting/study) is making my own beer!!!....I always wantd to try my hand a root beer!!!! Last edited on Fri May 13th, 2011 01:50 am by Albert Sailhorst |
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| Posted: Fri May 13th, 2011 04:17 am |
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3rd Post |
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Hellcat Member
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Oh I've got a couple books with recipes for making root beer. And of course the simplese way is simple syrup, carbonated wate, and root beer extract. But Cresswell's book is the only one that gives dates for some historic recipies for sodas. None of the historic root beer recipes in the book are dated to the war which is why I didn't bother mentioning them, but there are several that were in existence during the war. Didn't know of any re-enactors might be interested in that. But there are also plenty of recipes that Cresswell put in that are more modern, including a couple for making your own root beer extract. He also has a version of dandelion wine he calls dadelion champagne because it's carbonated.
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| Posted: Tue May 17th, 2011 09:56 pm |
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4th Post |
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Hellcat Member
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Managed to find my other book, Laura E. Quarantiello's The Root Beer Book: A Celebration of America's Favorite Soft Drink. Only one of the root beer recipes can be dated beyond '97 (claims it's a 1910 Root Beer recipe). There are a few that are claimed to be old but no clue when they date to. So from a re-enacting stand point their probably not useable. From a hobby standpoint they'd be great. However, the more interesting thing about this book is it gives some history on root beer. Supposedly there are examples of bottles dating from the 1840s through the 1860s with root beer written on them. The first commercially produced root beer was produced in 1842 by a John Dearborn in NYC. Prior to Charles Hires first producing Hires Root Beer in 1876 all commercially produced root beer as well as any home grown root beers were strictly local drinks, Hires is the first nationaly commerical brand. Something that gets me though on the earlier mentioned bottles reading root beer is the legend that Hires originally called it Hires Herb Tea but Reverend Russell Conwell convinced him to call it root beer instead because the Philly miners would never drink something called tea. Now the way I've always read this as that it sounded like all root beers were called root teas or herb teas and it was the Hires drink that caused the change. Maybe it was just the Hires drink was changed. The is another thing that if it's true may be of some interest. Supposedly in the Harriet Tubman sold root beer along with gingerbread and homemade pies in order to support herself. Now the thing that really gets me is the sentence that mentions this seems to contradict itself. It first says she did this during the 1850s, but then it says she did it while she was serving as a nurse, spy, and scout during the war. It could be both or it could be that was supposed to say during the 1860s instead of during the 1850s.
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| Posted: Wed May 18th, 2011 03:51 am |
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5th Post |
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Albert Sailhorst Member
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Interesting.......So, how does Saspirilla fit in??? Thanks for the research & info!!!!
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| Posted: Wed May 18th, 2011 04:42 am |
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6th Post |
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Hellcat Member
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Sarsaparilla is one of many possible ingredient in root beer. Cresswell also mentions that it's root and sassafras root are both traditional ingredients in sarsaparilla soda. And yes I spelled it sarsaparilla instead of sasparilla as the Smilax regelii plant is commonly known as the sarsaparilla which gets shortened to sasparilla. No cclue about that though. However, you might be interested in this site (http://www.nutrasanus.com/sarsaparilla.html). According to what it says, they were using it in the 1850s as a syphilis cure among other things. Early root beers were touted for their helth benifits. So it'd not be terribly surprising to find it among the igredients of root beers of the time.
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| Posted: Thu May 19th, 2011 01:21 am |
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7th Post |
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Albert Sailhorst Member
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Shoot!!!....I need to find the time to make some root beer/sasaparilla for the boys in my reenactin group!!!....I just need time!!!....We've go a boat-load of reenacting events, we're going to Wilson's Creek for the 150th, we're doing a Historical Society demonstration in my town and I an hosting our annual Summer Encampment at our house.....In addition to trying to keep the yard mowed, my son's little league, etc!!! Even though it is now mid-May, my summer is already gone!!!
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| Posted: Thu May 19th, 2011 01:55 am |
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8th Post |
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Hellcat Member
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That's just the way it goes. Get a million and one things going before anything gets going and your year is gone. Yeah I know you said summer, I'm just thinking of having had different times of the year where I've had so much planned and not enough time to get all of them done. Too bad we can't freeze time some times. Just imagine mowing the lawn in a second and it still taking the usual amount of time just cause you froze time to do it in. Course could just go the easy way of making the root beer from a root beer extract. Wouldn't be historically acurate and I don't know how historically accurate you want the drinks to be. But it could cut down on time for you. The big thing is letting it set and checking it to get the carbonation.
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| Posted: Thu May 19th, 2011 02:07 am |
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9th Post |
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Albert Sailhorst Member
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I also forgot to mention the Hawken rifle I need to work on and the Mountain Howitzer I bought needs work done on the trail!!!.....At this point, I think the boys would hafta be content with root beer made from extract!!!.....Having never made it before, I hope I can apply what I know about carbonating my home made beer to that of root beer..... Thanks!!!
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| Posted: Thu May 19th, 2011 05:24 am |
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10th Post |
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Hellcat Member
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You should be able to, I'd imagine. Beer yeast is one of the yeasts Cresswell discusses as an ingredient for trying to make ones one root beer and soft drink recipes. And a 1912 recipe for root beer from Fleischmann's (never knew they were that old) uses an ounce of either hops or ginger root, though to be perfectly honest I've never tried making beer so I don't know if hops is just used for flavoring or if it's combined with yeast for carbination.
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| Posted: Thu May 19th, 2011 05:20 pm |
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11th Post |
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Albert Sailhorst Member
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Hops are used for flavor.....Different types of hops impart different flavors......That's why some European beers can smell "skunkey", for example. Once my wort (beer before it is "beer") has fermented, I mix a half cup of corn sugar into the 5 gallons of wort, then bottle it. After about a week, the corn sugar I added causes carbonation to take place....
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| Posted: Fri May 20th, 2011 05:14 am |
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12th Post |
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Hellcat Member
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Ok, maybe it'd be a bit different. Quarantiello does give some very basic recipies for making root beer. The easiest is to make up a simple sugar syrup by boiling two cups sugar in one cup of water for a while then cool it and refrigerate until you plan to use it. Then you take and put one to two teaspoons of the syrup into a glass of soda water and add enough root beer extract to suit your taste. Another calls for two cups sugar, 1 teaspoon yeast, and t tablesppos of root beer extract. Place them in a gallon jug and add a quart of very warm water, stirring until well mixed. Then fill the rest of the jug with warm water and place the lid on it. Let it stand for forty-eight hours to two weeks then refrigerate to stop the carbination process. Another, more in depth process she lists goes like this. Take 1/8 to 1/4 tablespoon of yeast and add it to one cup of luke warm water, letting it stand for five minutes for the yeast to disolve completely. If it doesn't then throw it out and start again. In a seperate bowl combine one tablespoon of root beer extract with two cups of sugar and enough warm water to disolve the sugar completely. Once the sugar is disolved add the yeast mixture. Add this mixture to enough warm water to bring you up to 1 gallon of finished product. Then taste the mixture using a spoon, if it doesn't taste sweet enough add more sugar and if it doesn't have enough root beer flavor add more extract. Once it's to your liking pour it off into 1 liter bottles to within an inch from the top and cap it tightly to allow the carbonation to build. Then set the bottles aside for about three or four days at room temp keeping them away from stoves, microwaves fridges, or sunlight. After that move them to a cool dark place for a week or two. She does add a table for the above process to increase the batch. 2 Gallons, up the yeast to 1/4 to 1/2 teaspon, the extract to 1 oz., the sugar to four cups, and enough water for two gallons. 4 gallons, up the yeast to 1/2 to 1 teaspon, the extract to 1 bottle, the sugar to 8 cups, and enough water for four gallons. The only recipe I can find at the moment from Cresswell for making root beer from root beer extract calls for making it from homemade extract. It'd be more time consuming on you to make the extract, but it'd let you make up to eight gallons of root beer.
8 quarts of extract (makes 8 gallons of root beer.
Also, you might try using plastic bottles for making your root beer in over glass for one reason. Carbonation testing. You can just squeeze the plastic bottles until their firm to the touch to tell when the carbonation is right. That way you don't have to crack the cap to test the carbonation lavel.
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| Posted: Fri May 20th, 2011 11:21 pm |
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13th Post |
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Albert Sailhorst Member
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Sounds like a nice rainy Saturday afternoon project!!! Thanks!!!
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| Posted: Sat May 21st, 2011 06:16 am |
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14th Post |
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Hellcat Member
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Welcome and good luck.
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| Posted: Tue Jul 5th, 2011 11:32 pm |
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15th Post |
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Hellcat Member
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Hey, got another one for you. Got the Spauldings Civil War Recipes: Receipts from the Pages of Godey's Lady's Book for Christmas and since this thread I've been looking through it for other things (still gotta try doing the Welsh Rabbit recipe the right way instead of leaving out the ale) and I stumbled upon a recipe for Carbonated Syrup Water from 1860 and 1862. The recipe is:
Ok, the asterick there is a historic footnote in the book mentioning that soda waters and the counters where they were served were firmly in place by the time the war came along. Knew soda existed by then, but I always thought the soda counter was more a gay 90s introduction. And you may already have the bicorbonate of soda at home. Got any Arm & Hammer baking soda? Their the same thing. Think I'll see if this works with Root Beer concentrate.
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| Posted: Wed Jul 6th, 2011 02:37 am |
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16th Post |
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Hellcat Member
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Ok, that was a fail. Forgot that vinegar is an acid and that's the reason for the fizzing between baking soda and vinegar. No acid in the concentrate, that stuff tasted nasty. Plus I didn't have enough concentrate in the glass to get much root beer flavor. So it really did taste like baking soda flavored water. Maybe if I'd add a little vinegar to cause it to fizz, and absolutely more concentrate. Somehow I doubt that would save it though.
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