Homemade Root Beer, Soda & Pop

One of the more critical points of homemade-anything is learning about where to acquire raw materials... even when some of those materials have been made illegal or highly controlled in their sale (e.g., sassafras root). There's a lot of great information on how to identify certain plant species in the wild for extracting syrup (birch trees), digging up roots (burdock, sassafras), and generally just getting more in touch with your inner forager.For those who have no interest in foraging, this book may light a fire under your butt to get interested. Even if it doesn't, the recipes have all been very dependable and fantastic. I'm a huge fan of their inclusion of such old-fashioned beverages as shrub and tonics, and more everyday fun beverages that can be made with brewed coffee and one or two additional ingredients. A great way to spice up anyone's dreary drinking world, without killing your body with high quantities of acids and syrups.

Pretty much the only book of its kind, that is it gives recipes (some over 100 odd years old) for real Root Beer using sassafras roots. My only gripe is that the recipes use a dangerous method of fermentation and carbonation all in the one run (which is a recipe for exploding bottles). I contacted the author and pointed out that with decades of brewing experience I have never had a bottle explode because I use the modern 'standard' two part brewing ('primary' & 'secondary' fermentations) i.e. first add your ingredients and as much sugar as you want, let it fully finish fermenting and then add a specific amount of sugar to each bottle to safely achieve a carbonation/fizz in the sealed bottle (you can even buy sugar lumps designed for specific bottle sizes to do this or use a measure).

I'm glad I purchased this book altho I wish it was a little more current (it's written in 1998). Sandor Katz's referral in his fermentation book inspired me to order it. There's a lot of conflicting information online about home brewing non alcoholic drinks. I haven't read this book from cover to cover yet. Hopefully Cresswell will clarifiy home brewing for the novice. I was looking for drinks that use a "ginger bug" - most of his call for ale yeast. I'm wondering if it's okay to substitute ginger bug for the ale yeast? Tried to find the author on FB to ask. No luck so far. I've made ginger ale from an online recipe with ginger bug - it's tasty. My 1st batch of root beer didn't turn out so great altho my husband likes it for the probiotics. Sassafras is one hell of a herb to locate! Ordered a pound from an Amazon seller but it's been on back order for a month. All in all, I can't wait to try some of the recipes in this book. I recommend it.

Trying these recipes has been a fun adventure. Most of my crew still prefer store bought, but I’ve really enjoyed making my own soft drinks.

As someone who is tempted to buy all of the "DIY" books for food and drink, I got this the second I saw it and its reviews.If you're looking for a bunch of recipes for tasty sodas and root drinks, then this is great.If you're hoping to learn techniques, history, details about ingredients, etc., then not so much.Personally, I find that I can find almost any recipe online and that recipes aren't the fun part anyway. What books like these can and should provide are a few basic recipes/ratios, with a lot of stress on technique and education about the process so that you can be creative and successful in that particular project.Still, this is a really inexpensive small book with a pretty modest subject matter, so there wasn't that much more that Cresswell could have included I suppose.I guess I would say that if you absolutely feel the need to have a physical book about soda making, Cresswell's will do just fine. But given that it is just a collection of recipes, I would stick to the vast online resources.For starters check:- serious eats- jeffrey morgenthaler (http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/category/my-cocktail-recipes/)- http://nourishedkitchen.com/homemade-root-beer-recipe/and the hundreds of blogs and sites dedicated to this stuff

I Love this book! I've been making homemade wine and liquor (in very small batches) for quite a while. I've made beer in the past but I'm not a fan. Now its nice to be able to make my own herb brews and sweet brews whenever I want. Very easy and WAY healthier without all the High Fructose Corn Syrup waste product that everyone puts in their sodas. I recommend this even to the Newbie. Especially if your going to go into beers, and ales or even further with the liquor. This is a wonderful stepping stone. Its all about making it yourself.

If you ever wanted to make your own root beer or soda pop and don't want buy a Sodastream this book is for you chock full of useful tips and recipes as well as telling you what you need to get started perfect for anyone who's tired of paying through the nose for store bought pop and don't want to pay $120 for a soda machine or just likes to tinker.

Of course that's not saying much. I have failed to grow up in a great many ways. I can tell you however that this book is short, but filled with well documented and basic recipies. If you are curious about making your own homemade soda, then you need this book. It is the "primer". You can digest the whole book in a sitting and proceed to customizing the recipie's with confidence. I keep it close at hand these days, because the fun activity with my boys and me, this summer, will be experimenting in the kitchen with this great, simple, and historicly signifigant project.Buy this book, and have a "ball". We did.