Question about root beer?!
Question about root beer?
I know root beer is a plant... why is it called root beer?
Answers:
The Reason It's Called "Beer"
Root beer truly has its roots in beer (pun intended). Beer has been made for about 6,000 years, beginning in ancient Sumeria, and continuing in Egypt at the time of the Pharaohs. In the old cities of medieval Europe people did not know about sanitation, so they threw their garbage in the streets where the rain would wash it away into the rivers. The people who drank water from the wells and rivers became sick, so most people drank beer, which was healthier. A legend tells of St. Arnold in Belgium, a monk who was also a scientist. He studied why rich people lived longer than poor people, and he found that rich people drank beer and wine instead of water. St. Arnold then began a tradition of monastic beer brewing which continues to this day in Belgium, in order to bring cheaper beer to the poor. At this time in history, there were three basic kinds of beer, regular beer which was similar in alcohol strength to today's beers, strong beer, and small beer. Root beer has its roots in small beer.
With beer being the safest form of drinking liquid, which every healthy body needs, it was important to have a very low alcohol beer for an everyday water substitute, especially for children. Small beer was about 2 % alcohol. The alcohol acted as a preservative, and so did some of the bitter-tasting ingredients in the beer. Beer is made like a tea with barley or other grains for sweetness, and hops or other herbs for bitterness. It is boiled or brewed to blend the flavors and kill the bacteria and germs in the water, and then it is cooled and fermented with yeast. The yeast creates the alcohol and the bubbly carbon dioxide. There were three ways to brew small beer; either it was made from the small bits of sugars left in the grains after a strong beer was made, or it was made with a very small quantity of grain, or it was drunk very young and sweet before fermentation was completed. Modern root beer is closest in flavor to the last method because of its high sweetness level, although no modern commercial root beers use yeast or contain any alcohol at all, as I will explain in a moment...continued..
http://www.bulldogrootbeer.com/rbhistory...
extra reading on root beer..
http://www.rootbeerworld.com/questions.h...
http://www.greydragon.org/library/brewin...
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In the case of root beer, the flavoring comes from the root of the sassafras tree or the sarsaparilla vine.
i think you're thinking of sasparilla
Sarsaparilla is a vine that bears roots with many useful properties. These vines have long prickly stems and shiny leaves, and numerous reddish-brown roots up to 3 m long. Before treatment, the roots are bitter, sticky, and has a strong odor. Then they are dried and boiled in order to produce the extract. Root beer made from sarsaparilla roots is generally more "birchy" than the more popular, commercial brands.
it is called root beer because different recipes call for different types of roots.
The soft drink version of root beer is non-alcoholic and is generally made using root beer extract or other flavored syrups along with carbonated water. The soft drink version of root beer constitutes about 3% of the American soft drink market.[1]
The alcoholic version is made from a combination of vanilla, cherry tree bark, licorice root, sarsaparilla root, artificial sassafras root bark flavoring (the natural form is mildly carcinogenic), nutmeg, anise, and molasses among other ingredients.
Many local brands of root beer exist, and homemade root beer is made from concentrate or (rarely) from actual roots.
Because the best root beer is aged and they incorporate many methods similar to beer making. I don't know where you live but here in California there's nothing that can even come close to A&W draft root beer. In fact I think I'll go down right now and pick me up a gallon right out of the tap. Thanks for the reminder.
comes from the root..
Harpoon does some Awsome stuff w/ Root beer.
Root beer is a beverage made from the root of the Sassafrass plant. Or at least it used to be. Now most root beers are just artificially flavored. But the root of the sassafrass plant makes excellent tea, was used as a medicinal treatment and when dried and ground up is the flavoring/thickener called file (pronounced fill-ay) as in file gumbo.
If you live in the mid-south east area (Maryland to Louissianna) have someone show you a sassafrass plant (the leaves look kind of like a first baseman's mitt) and pull the plant out and smell the root. Just like real root beer.
A side note. Learn to read labels. Your root beer may say "No artificial flavoring" but that does not mean it was made with sassafrass. Sugar, salt bi-carbonate are all "natural" flavorings. Look at you strawberry juice that says 100% real fruit juice. I'll bet that fruit juice is either pear or apple and the strawberry flavor comes from one of those 34 letter words.
it has to do with the process by which it is made.