Nothing makes me more homesick than the 4th of July. Not even Christmas. The thought of everyone sleeping out at grandmas on the 3rd, waking up to dynamite at dawn, hanging out at the parade, watching the program and playing games at the school, blowing up old tractors, watching the fireworks, and of course...grandmas homemade root beer makes me so sad that I cry every year I'm not there.
I have memories as a little girl of going down the street to help Grandma cap the root beer. My favorite root beer memory is when Grandma was gone one year and holly made it. Instead of putting in 1 tsp. of yeast, she put in 1 Tbsp. of yeast. The first bottle was opened on the kitchen and it went EVERYWHERE! The blinds, ceiling, everything. We opened all of the other bottles outside and had contests to see whose could shoot the furthest-like Roman candles!!
The first year we were in Bakersfield I went to a yard sale and they had a capper for $2.00. I was SO EXCITED. It has been unused in the garage ever since. I finally pulled it out this year and made a small batch.
I found the most awesome caps! Very patriotic.
The bad news is that it was terrible! We couldn't even drink it. Grandma makes hers 6 days in advance and I did the same. I think the elevation (6000 ft. vs. 404 ft.) must have something to do with it because ours were WAY over ready. Next year I will only do 3 or 4 day before. Actually, next year we will be drinking grandmas batch in Circleville. That's a promise!
3 comments:
Love the bottlecaps. I think that you trying to keep the tradition going is a very noble thing to do. You will get it down to a science - just keep trying.
Laughing that it was bad. Those caps are adorable. Sounds so fun in Circleville!
It might have been the water! We tried to make it twice. Once with tap water. Another time with super clean RO water. The third time I went to the store and bought spring water. That was the closest it ever came to grandmas. :)
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