I had read somewhere that you can keep your ingredient (roots and stuff) that you have used in a batch and use them 1-3 more times. Does anyone know if this is true or not? I have kept the ingredients of my first two batches and figured its easier to keep them while I find out if this is true, then to throw them away and getting them back, if it ends up being true. Any thoughts on this?

Depends on how you make it I'd think. I use vodka to extract the flavor from the Sassafras root very effectively. If you use more root and heat in water you may be able to extract a few times.

Perhaps I could make an "experimental" batch using the saved ingredients and see what happens. I have a couple other questions that are kind of on the same subject matter.

1) I have been thinking - what if i cooked up a batch and then took either the ingredients from that batch or some other special ingredients and put them into a grain bag and let them sit in the brew for a period of time. Then bottled it and added the yeast to it. I'm not sure if this has been done or would do much but it was an idea. I thought of it because all sorts of alcoholic beverages site in different types of barrels for long periods of time to age and add flavors to, so I thought maybe similar methods could be used with root beer.

2) Based on some of the things I have read thus far, it seems that the longer your batch sits the better the flavor. So is it possible that you could make a batch, bottle it (either in bottles or jugs), let it sit for maybe a week (or even more) then when the time is right add yeast and let it ferment? Could this help with getting all the great flavor(s) you want and not have to worry about opening it early, so to speak, because the carbonation levels are where the need to be so the bottles don't burst or anything? Does that all make sense? lol

Flavors from barrels comes much more slowly. Months to years.

Root Beer flavors don't like to extract in water. However they extract very well in alcohol. I'm doing some experiments to see what the best approach is. I put roots and other ingredients in a glass bottle with just enough vodka to cover it. Let it extract for a couple weeks at room temp. Then added water sugar and yeast to fill the bottle. Only seems to be carbonating slowly though, not sure if there is too much alcohol or what.

So than other than using alcohol, the next best option is to do what already gets done when simmering the ingredients in the water then? I'm also curious, when you use alcohol to extract the flavors, do you then let the alcohol evaporate so its just the extract behind? If you leave the alcohol and then add your other stuff, does this then make the root beer an "alcoholic beverage"? I only ask because if I were to do anything like that, it probably would not be best if I didn't serve it to kids...lol

Hahah, yep if you don't let the alcohol evaporate then it's alcoholic. For my own consumption I don't, but you can. How long it takes to evaporate depends on the temp, volume and surface area of your root beer. A lot of the flavorants you buy from the store actually have a lot of alcohol in them. Though they usually expect you will be baking with them, which means the alcohol evaporates away.

You may be able to try and extract it in some kind of oil (vegetable or sum such) and then add an emulsifier (to homogenize it like they do to milk) to your root beer after.