Charles Hires, a Philadelphia pharmacist, launched his root beer at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition as a blood purifier containing sixteen traditional herbs, originally sold as a dry package families brewed at home.
Ingredients (makes 1 gallon)
- 1 oz dried sarsaparilla root, 1/2 oz each dried burdock root and dandelion root
- 1/2 oz dried ginger root, 1/4 oz dried licorice root
- 1/4 oz each dried juniper berries (crushed), dried hops, dried wild cherry bark, dried wintergreen leaf, dried spicebush berries or allspice
- 1 vanilla bean, split, 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 cup raw cane sugar
- 1 gallon filtered water, 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
Method
- Combine all roots, berries, and bark with the water. Bring to a bare simmer and hold 35 minutes.
- Add vanilla bean, hops, and cinnamon in the final 10 minutes.
- Strain through cheesecloth. Stir in sugar while warm, then cool completely.
- Add yeast, stir, and bottle in swing-top bottles. Ferment 24 to 48 hours at room temperature.
- Refrigerate and drink within a week.
Wild cherry bark was for cough and respiratory support, juniper for kidney health, hops for nervous relaxation. Hires was compounding a multi-herb formula in the most appealing delivery form available — later reformulated into a simple flavored soda that never brought the original sixteen back.
This recipe is one of twenty in The Forgotten Apothecary — our full digital cookbook of pharmacy-counter tonics, switchels, oxymels, and healing syrups.