Homemade soda is very easy to make and is a great science project to do with the kids! They learn the basics of how yeast eats sugar to create CO2. An easy, fun, and rewarding way to make root beer is the "old-fashioned" way, similar to the way Grandpa used to make root beer. He would mix water, extract, sugar, and yeast. Then, he would fill bottles with the mixture and place the bottles in the fridge to chill. The yeast of choice was champagne yeast. However, this yeast created serious problems. The problem with champagne yeast is that it likes to work when cold, causing the bottles to over-carbonate and turning them into grenades! We recommend ale yeast because the cold generally stops the yeast from over-carbonation and prevents the bottles from exploding.
Other methods to carbonate root beer and soda include kegging and dry ice. Both methods eliminate having to use yeast. To make root beer and dispense from a keg, you will also need a Cornelius keg, regulator, CO2 tank, and roughly 20' of 3/16th tubing. Using dry ice is fun, but you need to use it with caution because the temperature of dry ice is -109º F, which is cold enough to freeze skin cells, causing an injury similar to a burn.
Our soda flavors include Barking Birch Beer, Black Dawg Cherry, Cream Soda, Dr. Cherry, Ginger Snap Beer, Grape-Licious, Kool Cola, Orange Cream Soda, Raspberry Ginger Ale, and Sassy Sarsaparilla. Our root beer flavors include our original flavor #1 (temporarily unavailable), which has a robust, spicy "microbrew" style root beer taste similar to IBC's Root Beer (makes 5 gallons), old fashioned #2 tastes similar to Old Hires or Dad's style root beer (makes 2 ½ gallons) and #3 has a sweet and creamy gourmet taste like Thomas Kemper, Henry Weinhard's, Stewarts's, and Dog n Sud's Root Beer (makes 5 gallons) and Natural Root Beer Cream is root beer with a hint of cream.
Besides drinking your homemade root beer over ice, other yummy and creative ways exist. You can make: root beer ice cream, root beer floats, root beer hard candy, root beer frosting, root beer syrup on pancakes, root beer cookies, root beer cakes and muffins, root beer popsicles, glaze for pork, chicken, and bar-b-q ribs, root beer baked beans, and more.