Root! Root! Root For Root Beer

With the summer heat cranked up to "blistering," now's a good time to brew up a beverage that's as American as apple pie -- and just as good with ice cream.

Root beer has its roots in, well, beer. Way back when it wasn't safe to drink the water, people drank a lot of beer. It was healthier. Since it was an everyday substitute for water (and was served to children), there was a need for at least some beer to be relatively low in alcohol. "Small beer," which was usually less than 2 percent alcohol, was a common daily drink.

Early beer was flavored with many different ingredients, including sarsaparilla, sassafras, ginger and dandelion roots, birch and wintergreen bark, allspice, juniper berries, coriander seed, licorice, cardamom and cinnamon. (See where this is going?)

Did you know the pilgrims on the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock because they ran out of beer? When those first colonists settled in what is now the United States they used honey, molasses or cane sugar to make their beer. They hadn't had time to start their own crops yet, so barley, a key ingredient in beer, was not available. Those first settlers added different roots and herbs to this beer for added flavor -- and thus was the beginning of root beer.

Today, commercially made root beer no longer contains even a hint of alcohol, because of modern methods of carbonization. In the past, the fermentation process of adding yeast to the liquid created natural carbonization, with alcohol as a byproduct.

It's easy and fun to make your own root beer -- and a good project to do with the kids when you start hearing the "we're b-o-o-o-red" mantra.

Of course, you don't have to have kids to make up a batch of root beer. You just have to be a kid at heart.

You can still ferment root beer just like the pilgrims did, (that would be a whole other column), but here's a very simple root beer soda recipe for instant gratification on a hot summer day. Don't forget the ice cream for root beer floats!

Ingredients
2 c. sugar
1 c. water
1 tbsp. root beer extract (available in spice section of many grocery stores or in homebrew stores)
64 oz. carbonated water (seltzer water)

1. Stir sugar into water and just heat until all dissolves and is clear.
2. Add root beer extract to syrup.
3. Place 2 oz. of syrup in a 12-ounce soda glass.
4. Add a little ice and 8 oz. soda to fill. Stir only once so that you don't work out the carbonation.

Liquid Solutions was the recipient of the 2004 Beer Journalism Awards.