Homebrewed root beer -- timeless
When you live in the home of the oldest Fourth of July celebration in West Virginia, America's birthday is as big as Christmas. Making homemade root beer so it's ready for the star-spangled festivities is a tradition my husband's grandmother started. Since Grandma Flossie moved from Terra Alta, my sister-in-law Gloria has tried to replicate the taste she grew up with and preserve the tradition. Through trial-and-error she tries every year to duplicate the process. "If it doesn't turn out this year, the tradition dies," Gloria said in 2004, but I didn't believe her. That year she let me watch her home-brew efforts in my mother-in-law's kitchen. It is the process as much as the recipe that makes or breaks the root beer. Leave the bottles on their sides too long and the fermenting yeast will build up too much pressure, causing the bottles to burst. Stand them up to slow the process too soon and the root beer will be flat. Gloria and