Hanging Out and Enjoying Some Home-Brews at the Appalachian Festival

Today while wondering around the Appalachian Festival I noticed that a good portion of the people weaving their way in and around the tents and presenters were drinking out of brown bottles.  Being a self-aware college student, my first thought was that the University had lifted the ban on drinking on campus and that these festival attendees were embracing the sprit of this.  After spending five minutes researching this and trying to figure out where everyone was getting these bottles from, I found it by way of a table under the larger tent.  At the table was a sign that said “Home-Brew Sassafras Root Beer,” with Ian Cheek, a Frostburg State student, behind the table serving these brews in recycled beer bottles for a $2 donation.

(Sign on the table)

After this discovery, the vast majority of my time at the Appalachian Festival was spent in discussion with Cheek about the making of the root beer along with other things that can be brewed from local flora and fauna.  As it turns out, although he was manning the table Cheek did not in fact make the home brewed root beer, rather his friend and fellow FSU student Gabe Echaveri makes the root beer but he was at a presentation for a class, so Cheek was just filling in. 

Cheek and I talked about making root beer and he provided me with rough instructions on how Gabe made the patch I was drinking at the table. (Instructions provided below)

(Ian Cheek, on the right, and a friend enjoy the root beer)

   

Instructions:

1.     Either purchase or harvest the root of a sassafras albidum plant.

2.    Dry out after it has been thoroughly scrubbed and cleaned of all dirt.

a.     Note: If you bought the root, then you would not need to dry out the root as for it already has been.

3.    In the largest pot you can find/have, boil the dried root in water with vanilla bean.

a.     You are to boil until the liquid has a deep rich red color.

4.    Once the boiling liquid has reached the desired color, add brown sugar.

a.     Add brown sugar to taste.

                                                                 i.     Note: If you would want it very sweet, add more sugar.

5.    After the brown sugar as dissolved into the liquid, add champagne yeast.

6.    Pour the root beer into bottles and cap them.

7.    Allow the root beer to ferment in the bottles, until fully carbonated.

a.     This will take around 3-4 days.

Also featured on the table were books about the edible plants of Appalachia as well as recipe books on what you can make with them.  One the books that I spent some time looking at was entitled, Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers, which was filled with beer recipes from across the globe that can cure any ailment. 

(Herbal recipe books)

All and all the Appalachian Festival was filled with many different things that embody the spirit of the region as well as everything that makes this region so unique.  There were things for everyone at the App Fest including yet not limited to:

·      Puppet Shows in the Children’s Tent

·      Food vendors selling everything from fresh kettle cooked popcorn to Italian sausages

·      A petting zoo with goats

·      Arts and Crafts handmade by local craftsmen/craftswomen

·      Live music

·      Rocky Gap State Park Rangers with live Owls

·      Finally the biggest bait-and-switch of the event: an anti-wind farm group, ANCHOR: Allegany Neighbors & Citizens for Home Owner’s Rights.

o   The group had a big tent set up with what appeared to be information about wind turbines, yet it turned out to be a group supporting Code Home Rule Bill No 2-09; which goes against the plans of wind farm corporations.