A good old fashioned root beer, wild fermented with real herbs, spices, roots and barks. Source these hard-to-find ingredients from your local herb shop or an organic source online!
Recipe adapted from Nourished Kitchen
INGREDIENTS
3 quarts of filtered water
1/4 cup sassafras root bark
1/4 cup wintergreen leaf
2 tablespoons sarsaparilla root
1/2 tablespoon licorice root
1 tablespoon ginger root
1 tablespoon dandelion root
1 tablespoon birch bark
1 tablespoon wild cherry bark 1 teaspoon juniper berries 1 cinnamon stick 1 cup raw organic sugar 1/2 cup mature ginger bug (made in advance) or whey (strained from yogurt or one packet of kefir starter
Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil. Add all herbs/spices and sugar. Stir to to dissolve sugar. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30-45 minutes. Turn off the heat and pour infusion through a strainer lined with muslin cloth into a large bowl. Let cool until it reaches body temperature (less than 100°). Stir in the ginger bug, whey or kefir starter. Leave in the bowl to ferment or transfer to a large jar. Cover with dish towel or muslin cloth and secure with a rubber band if necessary. Ferment for about 24 hours. (You should see some light bubbles when you indicating fermentation activity when you give it a stir.) Transfer into brewing bottles (made from pressurized glass) using a funnel. Leave an inch of head space at the top each bottle. Allow the root beer to ferment in bottle for 1-7 days at room temperature, checking for carbonation daily. Once carbonated, transfer to the refrigerator for an additional 2 days to age. Cold storage slows down fermentation activity, but does not stop it. Always open bottles carefully over a sink. Consume within 4 weeks
