Today is one of those days where history took a day off. Lots of interesting things happened on May 15 and on May 17, but on May 16 we can celebrate only the invention of Root Beer by Charles Elmer Hires, a Philadelphia pharmacist in 1866. Our US cousins are, of course, very familiar with Root beer but it is (thankfully) less common in the UK. Not surprisingly it is made from roots. It seems that just about any old combination of roots will do, with vanilla, cherry tree bark, liquorice root, sarsaparilla root, sassafras root bark, nutmeg and anise forming staples. Other ingredients may include allspice, birch bark, coriander, juniper, ginger, wintergreen, hops, burdock root, dandelion root, spikenard, pipsissewa, guaiacum, spicewood, yellow dock, honey, clover, cinnamon, prickly ash bark, yucca, quillaja, dog grass, coffee, citric acid and molasses. Root beer is made using some arbitrary mixture roots and spices to which is added sugar, water, and yeast. It is allowed to ferment under pressure to retain the carbonation and limit the alcohol produced by the yeast to low levels (normally about 2%). Astonishingly, there are currently 59 commercial varieties of Root beer available in the US (some of which have been described by various luminaries as ‘palatable’!) as well as hundreds, if not thousands of homebrewed concoctions. How it is that thousands haven’t been poisoned remains one of the great, unsolved mysteries of the age. Well Done Charles Elmer Hires.
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