The Surprising History of Root Beer—and How to Make It at Home

Root beer floats are a classic American treat, especially popular around the Fourth of July. But before becoming the fizzy, sugary concoction we know and love, root beer was a medicinal tonic. Shutterstock

As summer creeps on and the weather turns hot and sluggish, nothing quenches the thirst quite like root beer. Notes of vanilla and wintergreen combine in one syrupy sweet, fizzy drink that’s delicious served over ice or in a float with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It’s a distinctly American drink, one you’re not likely to find outside of the country.

Few foods tell the story of American culinary heritage quite like root beer. In only a few centuries, an American classic evolved from a bitter-sweet medicinal brew to the hyper-sweet, heavily processed drink we know today.

The 1st Root Beers

Real root beer exudes a delightful old-world charm, boasting an eccentric medley of wild medicinal plants. For generations, home brewers foraged for roots, barks, flowers, and leaves, boiling them together to make a wort—an inky concoction that, when you add yeast, ferments to a probiotic drink that’s loaded with gut-friendly live cultures. Home-brewed root beers bear a closer resemblance to kombucha, the fermented tea that has become wildly popular in the past decade, than they do beer.