This review is from: Mr. Root Beer Home Brewing Root Beer Kit (Kitchen)
My family has loved this kit and the refills. The kit comes with enough to make two gallons, but you can only do one gallon at a time, as it comes with four 1-quart bottles. The taste of the root beer has everything to do with how closely you follow the instructions. Some people have complained that it doesn’t have a good taste, others have complained that it wasn’t carbonated enough. The instructions explain that leaving the bottle to sit too long before putting it in the refrigerator will result in an ‘off’ taste, and putting it into the refrigerator too soon will result in flat root beer. This is because of the yeast (included in kit) that goes into it. After you make the root beer and put it in the bottles, you have to let the bottles sit for a day or more. The instructions explain that the carbonation comes from the yeast mixing with the sugar and creating oxygen (or something like that). When you put it in the refrigerator the yeast stops working. So, if you put it in too soon, you didn’t give the yeast enough time to properly carbonate the drink. If you let the yeast work for too long, it starts to effect the taste. Trying to figure out what is too long or not long enough is why I’m giving this 4 stars instead of 5. Learning how to tell when the bottles are firm enough to put them in the refrigerator might take a couple of batches before you get it just right. But once you figure out just how firm the bottles should be before you put them in the refgrigerator, you will be making some excellent tasting homemade rootbeer!
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This review is from: Mr. Root Beer Home Brewing Root Beer Kit (Kitchen)
I ordered this kit for my 11 year old nephew’s birthday. He loves Rootbeer & was excited to try it out. There was a lot more to making this than we realized, which is a good thing because that ended up being most of the fun with it. I have to say, the wait was well worth it because it tasted great!
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This review is from: Mr. Root Beer Home Brewing Root Beer Kit (Kitchen)
First off, this is a great gift item. It’s one of those items that initially you’re unsure about (“Do I really want to spend MONEY on this? I don’t even know if the Root Beer is going to be any good.”) but would still be cool to try. Do your root beer loving friends a favor, save their money and gift this to them. They’ll love it, and will probably be buying refill kits.
The first batch I made, I followed all the instructions and set the bottles on the kitchen counter to ferment. Less than 24 hours later the bottles were firm to the touch. Since the instructions said it could take 1-3 days, I was somewhat concerned with the short fermentation time, so I only put two of the four bottles in the fridge. I left the other two out for two full days, despite the firmness of the bottle. After letting the root beer chill in the fridge for a day, I tried it. As I suspected the first bottles were a little flat. The great thing about yeast carbonation is that the yeast are still alive in the bottle. All I had to do was let those bottles rest at room temperature for another day and the yeast woke right back up and kept on carbonating. Even in the refrigerator, the yeast are still working, just a lot slower. Once the root beer is carbonated, it never goes flat until the yeast completely run out of sugar to eat!
The first batch I found to have a nice creamy, but overly sweet flavor. It was still very good compared to most store brands. I find that I prefer the extra bite that a strongly carbonated beverage gives, so a little extra time fermenting worked well for me.
The second batch I adjusted the recipe just a smidge. The included recipe calls for 2 cups of regular sugar and 1 cup of dark brown sugar. For the second batch reduced the sugar to 1 1/2 of the regular stuff (I used an organic sugar this time) and went with a slightly looser pack on the cup of brown sugar. True to form, the final product was considerably drier with a lot more complex flavor notes coming through. I really liked it. The bottles didn’t last long.
One thing other reviewers have commented about is the bottle caps. Frankly I think it’s an ingenious design. One thing that home brewers have always had to worry about is OVER-carbonation. When you’re carbonating in a sealed bottle, you are prone to explosions if you’re not very careful about the pressure build-up inside the bottle. The caps on these bottles have a hole in the center, and you put a soft foam gasket to line the top of the cap. The gasket has a small slit cut into the very center. It provides a seal against the bottle rim, and when the pressure inside the bottle increases the gasket expands up through the hole and eventually the slit in the gasket will open ever so slightly to release that pressure. As the pressure reduces, the slit automatically closes and reseals until the carbonation re-pressurizes enough to force it open again. This neatly prevents the bottles from exploding, and prevents you from having to deal with a messy clean up.
But it for yourself. Buy it for your kids. Buy it for your friends (and/or their kids). It’s fun and makes a really good Root Beer. Pretty soon you’ll find you’re exploring other recipes making your own sodas at home and leaving the High Fructose Corn Syrup-laden store sodas behind!
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There’s a learning curve,
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|Authentic & Neat!,
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|Good fun making good soda!,
The first batch I made, I followed all the instructions and set the bottles on the kitchen counter to ferment. Less than 24 hours later the bottles were firm to the touch. Since the instructions said it could take 1-3 days, I was somewhat concerned with the short fermentation time, so I only put two of the four bottles in the fridge. I left the other two out for two full days, despite the firmness of the bottle. After letting the root beer chill in the fridge for a day, I tried it. As I suspected the first bottles were a little flat. The great thing about yeast carbonation is that the yeast are still alive in the bottle. All I had to do was let those bottles rest at room temperature for another day and the yeast woke right back up and kept on carbonating. Even in the refrigerator, the yeast are still working, just a lot slower. Once the root beer is carbonated, it never goes flat until the yeast completely run out of sugar to eat!
The first batch I found to have a nice creamy, but overly sweet flavor. It was still very good compared to most store brands. I find that I prefer the extra bite that a strongly carbonated beverage gives, so a little extra time fermenting worked well for me.
The second batch I adjusted the recipe just a smidge. The included recipe calls for 2 cups of regular sugar and 1 cup of dark brown sugar. For the second batch reduced the sugar to 1 1/2 of the regular stuff (I used an organic sugar this time) and went with a slightly looser pack on the cup of brown sugar. True to form, the final product was considerably drier with a lot more complex flavor notes coming through. I really liked it. The bottles didn’t last long.
One thing other reviewers have commented about is the bottle caps. Frankly I think it’s an ingenious design. One thing that home brewers have always had to worry about is OVER-carbonation. When you’re carbonating in a sealed bottle, you are prone to explosions if you’re not very careful about the pressure build-up inside the bottle. The caps on these bottles have a hole in the center, and you put a soft foam gasket to line the top of the cap. The gasket has a small slit cut into the very center. It provides a seal against the bottle rim, and when the pressure inside the bottle increases the gasket expands up through the hole and eventually the slit in the gasket will open ever so slightly to release that pressure. As the pressure reduces, the slit automatically closes and reseals until the carbonation re-pressurizes enough to force it open again. This neatly prevents the bottles from exploding, and prevents you from having to deal with a messy clean up.
But it for yourself. Buy it for your kids. Buy it for your friends (and/or their kids). It’s fun and makes a really good Root Beer. Pretty soon you’ll find you’re exploring other recipes making your own sodas at home and leaving the High Fructose Corn Syrup-laden store sodas behind!
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