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Root beer is a non-alcoholic beverage made from some combination of vanilla, cherry tree bark, licorice root, sarsaparilla root, sassafras root bark, nutmeg, anise, and molasses among other things. Each root beer has a unique
recipe. Root beer constitutes about 3% of the U.S. soft drink market. Many
local brands of root beer exist and home-made root beer is made from concentrate or rarely from roots.
Other ingredients may include allspice, birch bark, coriander, juniper, ginger, wintergreen, hops, burdock
root, dandelion root, spikenard,
pipsissewa, guaiacum, spicewood, yellow dock, honey, clover, cinnamon,
prickly ash bark, yucca, quillaja and dog
grass.
Due to the wide variety of ingredients possible the flavor of root beer is widely variable between brands. This is especially
true of local brands.
Root beer was a traditional beverage and herbal medicine. The beverage was often alcoholic, usually around 2%. As a medicine
it was used for cough and mouth sores. Commercially prepared root beer was developed by Charles Elmer Hires on May 16, 1866. He presented root tea powder at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial exhibition. In 1893 he began selling bottled carbonated root beer.
Home-made root beer is made using concentrate to which is added sugar, water and yeast. It is allowed to ferment under
pressure to retain the carbonation and limit the alcohol produced by the yeast to low levels.
Root beer brands include:
Sassafras root was banned in the U.S. in 1960 by the FDA as it contains safrole, a potential carcinogen. The young
shoots, bark and leaves do not contain this toxin, so commercial extracts are often made from these. Also artificial flavoring
agents have been developed which are used in some commercial root beers. Other varieties use sassafras root extract from which
the safrole has been removed. The sassafras tree grows wild in the most of the Eastern United States and a person could go and
harvest the wild plants, however removing safrole from sassafras root extract and verifying that it is safe is a task which is
beyond the ability and equipment of most homebrewers.
Root beer is also used as a flavoring for candy, cough drops, popcorn, root beer floats, cakes and breads. An example of this are root beer Sanded Candy Drops made by Pennsylvania Dutch Candies.
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