Beer Forum

I got the gnome rootbeer extract and figured id make some for my son and me since we love some root beer. I followed one of the recipe suggestions on the site but man is this thing sweet and smells a lil like pepto bismal. I use the whole bag, 2 lbs sugar, 2 lbs brown and 1 lbs light karo. In a 5 gal keg. Any info would be good. I could always water it down some.

I had the same issue with making sodas. Since we are kegging and force carbonating, we don't have the yeast eating some of those sugars (producing a small amount of alcohol) and reducing the sweetness.

I was able to address this problem by replacing some of the sugar with dextrin malt. The dextrin adds body, but does not add sweetness. I am still working out the right ratios, but think I remember replacing about 1.5 - 2 lbs of sugar with equal amounts of dextrin.

Hope this helps ...

of the few root beer extracts i have tried, the gnome was my least favorite flavor... the best i have not been able to locate a source of.