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Is Sasparilla or Sarsaparilla still brewed or sold in Sheffield?

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I got some sarsparilla cordial today!! Whooppee!!! Its not bad..but i dont think its exactly the same taste i remember as a little girl...but its still good..gave my son (he's 24) some and he threw it away!! said it was lousy!!! they dont know wot theyre missin do they??wud still love to find the original fizzy sas tho...anyone know of any knocking around???

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Hi sccsux, I came to Sheffield in 1987 and remember it. Do you know when it closed please?

 

According to my diary, Jack Lee (great bloke) closed up and retired in May 1989. His was the last shop in Sheffield where you could get brewed sarsparilla - he made it himself at the back of the shop. It was dispensed in pints and half-pints from beer-engines in Jack's bar, and for few pence extra you could have a dash of "blood tonic" added (no idea what the tonic was but it gave the brew a stronger flavour). When we weren't old enough to go in a pub, my mates and me would prop up the bar at Jack's with pints of sarsparilla. A few years later I would call at Jack's for "something for the weekend".

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Sorry cant spell it. Holland and Barrats and other health/herbalstores stock it but as a cordial, its about two pound a bottle and tastes ok but not like the bottled pop i had as a kid in the seventies. Ben Shaws use to make it, but i dont see their products these days, its all coke and pepsie now.

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there use to be a sasparilla shop at the top of abbeydale road near to the old picture house what is now the snooker hall if it is still there, I use to always go in there from coming out of heeley baths on a saturday afternoon and it would be a pint of the stuff not a ladies drink the wee half as thats what some women drank. I wish it was still there thats where I would be all the time drinking that stuff. oh happy times bring them back thats what I say.

 

me too the goodold days hey :hihi::hihi:

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Does anyone know how to brew this stuff? We could rake it in off the back of this thread!

 

All rights reserved

 

4 oz Sarsaparilla

4 oz Sassafras

1 oz licorice

4 oz Wintergreen leaves

5 pounds sugar

4 gallons water.

 

Boil everything for about 1/2 hour. Strain into a bucket and when cool add brewers yeast. Let it ferment for 3/4 days then strain off again into a pressure barrel.

 

Give it 24 hours to build up a head and that should keep you going all summer

 

The finished product will contain about 3% alcohol, so if you are making it for the kids cut back the sugar by 50%

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I remember the Sarspirilla shop next to the Abbeydale Pictures. Had a pint of it after I'd been to Heeley Baths ... I thought it was absolutely vile! Never had any since!

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I remember the Sarspirilla shop next to the Abbeydale Pictures. Had a pint of it after I'd been to Heeley Baths ... I thought it was absolutely vile! Never had any since!

 

Folks tastes change. I once bought a Capri because I though it was cool.

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4 oz Sarsaparilla

4 oz Sassafras

1 oz licorice

4 oz Wintergreen leaves

5 pounds sugar

4 gallons water.

 

Boil everything for about 1/2 hour. Strain into a bucket and when cool add brewers yeast. Let it ferment for 3/4 days then strain off again into a pressure barrel.

 

Give it 24 hours to build up a head and that should keep you going all summer

 

The finished product will contain about 3% alcohol, so if you are making it for the kids cut back the sugar by 50%

I don't think this can be the recipe used for the sas sold in the old shops.They were temperance bars for those who had taken the pledge.I don't think there could have been any alcohol in it. I had heard that the one on Abbeydale Rd was there because the local landlord was bigin the temperance society and would not give any leases for pubs.There is still a large area round there with no pubs-from the Broadfield there is not another 'til Highfields,non the other way 'til Chesterfield road and non up the hill @til Nether Edge.Don't know if all thats true but it sounds feasable .

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I don't think this can be the recipe used for the sas sold in the old shops.They were temperance bars for those who had taken the pledge.I don't think there could have been any alcohol in it. I had heard that the one on Abbeydale Rd was there because the local landlord was bigin the temperance society and would not give any leases for pubs.There is still a large area round there with no pubs-from the Broadfield there is not another 'til Highfields,non the other way 'til Chesterfield road and non up the hill @til Nether Edge.Don't know if all thats true but it sounds feasable .

 

Anything fermented will contain a small amount of alcohol. The old ginger beer that our mothers made had alcohol in small quantities. If you don't want too much alcohol keep the sugar levels down. Without the ferment you can't get the fizz unless you invest in a carbonation set up, which I am sure did not happen in the old temperance bars. The fact that the ones I remember used hand pumps to serve the stuff suggests it was a barrel conditioned product. ie fermented.

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I agree with that but was the sasperila fizzy ? I can't remember.

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I agree with that but was the sasperila fizzy ? I can't remember.

 

No. It was rather like handpulled mild but with a rather thinner head. Perhaps a bit more flavour

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It was called 'POP'S'

 

Cynthia, Ontario, Canada.

 

I remember going in there with my mum, I guess it would have been around 1970, maybe earlier.

 

I remember the bar and the round standing tables with cast iron legs and white stone tops ... dunno why, but that memory persists.

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