New Fashioned Root Beer

The progressive self-sufficiency of today was taken for granted by the residents and their families. When I learned root beer could be made from roots and turn alcoholic if left to ferment, even that it could be made at all and didn't mean a trip to the grocery, I was amazed. When I told this to my 90-something friends they only said "of course".

So, I set out to have an activity where we make root beer the old fashioned way. I learned that the three key ingredients for root beer flavor are vanilla, wintergreen, and sassafras. I also quickly learned that sassafras is hard to come by since it has received the label of carcinogenic. I've made homemade mead before and root beer does not take as long as that but it is definitely a multi-day process that I wasn't confident would work well in retirement community setting.

I reasoned that if we made root beer a quicker and cheaper way, we could still using the cooking and drinking time to reminisce about memories of the more traditional process. Even in this I was stymied, however. Another person in activities wanted to double up at that time and I said yes so we could not talk but instead watched an old television program while I mixed the sugar, water, and root beer extract.

Sadly even the tasting didn't go as I'd imagined. The new-fashioned root beer recipe omits the artificial coloring of modern bottled root beers so many residents kept questioning why I was giving them "water" when I had promised something better. The taste was good but definitely impacted by the lack of color. I will have to find something creative to do with the remaining extract to compensate.