Make Your Own Root Beer

Everyone loves a cold, frosty mug of root beer, and let's not for get the root beer float! But where did this historic drink come from?

There are historical documents which state that Shakespeare drank something called "small beers."  This brew was actually made from an early colonial American recipe and it contained 2 to 12 percent alcohol and was considered a light, social drink. During American Colonial times, root beer was introduced along with Birch Beer, Sarsparilla Beer, and Ginger Beer. Only root beer would riegn as a longtime favorite. 

MEDICINAL ORIGINS

Most historians say that an actual root beer recipe happened by pure accident, by an eager pharmacist looking for a miricle drug.  Even though people were drinking an herbal home brewed variety of root beer for years, it was mostly an experiment for the creative and inventive.  In 1870, this pharmacist came up with a recipe for root beer which consisted of juniper, wintergreen, spikenard, pipsissewa, sarsaparilla, vanilla beans, hops, dog grass, birch bark and licorice. The drink was very medicinal and tasted both bitter and sweet.  It was offered to the public as a cure-all, however, it was never marketed or well-received.  No matter what root beer history story you believe, Rootbeer is an original brew that predates colas and other sodas.