Wow! Note to self. . . don’t drop a 13 pound chunk of dry ice into a 5 gallon cooler that’s 2/3 of the way full of liquid while it’s on your kitchen counter. You’ll see above why this was such a bad idea. All I could do after I dropped the dry ice in was stand back with my chin on the floor. It essentially overflowed all over the kitchen counter. When Josh walked into the kitchen, he immediately ran it outside to the driveway, but for a good 15 seconds, my sister and I were in shock just watching it happen.
Now, I’m not silly. . . I know what happens when you put dry ice in liquid, but there was quite a bit of room left in the cooler and the dry ice came in one huge chunk, so I didn’t have much of a choice at that time. Oh well, it’s all inconsequential really, because the root beer was awesome and it lasted throughout out 4th of July party and two additional days. It was some of the best root beer I’ve had in a long, long time.
Homemade Root Beer (from allrecipes.com)
Ingredients 6 cups white sugar 3 1/2 gallons cold water 1 (2 oz) bottle of root beer concentrate (I think I used McCormick’s) 4 pounds dry ice (I heard reviews that the ice dissapated quickly, so I asked Josh to pick up 10 pounds so I could refresh it every once in a while, but he brought home a 13 pound brick)
Preparation In a large cooler, mix together the sugar and water, stirring to dissolve sugar completely. Stir in the root beer concentrate. Carefully place the dry ice into the cooler, and cover loosely with the lid. Don’t tighten the lid or it could explode.
Let the mixture brew for about an hour before serving. Leftover root beer can be stored in plastic milk jugs.