[Kirk]

I made root beer from roots.  Lots of fun.  Anyway, does sassafras or sasparilla roots, or burdock root help in head retention? Or is yucca root the main help?

All of the above, plus bay leaves, orange peel , and some hops were in the recipe.  But, of course, sassafras root bark (cut and sifted) was the main player.

Do hops aid in head retention?  How about any of these roots.  Yucca root is supposed to help, which is why I added it, but I used yucca powder once before without much luck.  This Yucca is cut and sifted root, and this time the head retention was great.  However, this was also the first time I added hops, and also I carbonated with yeast instead of CO2.

[tschmidlin]

Hops do aid head retention, but then they're not typically in root beer so it must be something else.

According to this site it's the sassafras.  They also point out that file powder is made from sassafras and since it's used as a thickener it makes sense it should have the same head forming properties.  But they also mention yucca.  Bouef.
http://www.foodreference.com/html/frootbeer.html

[Kirk]

thanks ts

[alikocho]

Both sasparilla and burdock roots should aid head retention.