Samuel Adams 1790 Root Beer Brew

Review Date 6/30/2006  By John Staradumsky

  Style: Hard Root Beer   Brewery: Boston Beer   Country: USA   State: Massachusetts   $ Per OZ: $.14 (B)   ABV: 5.5%

Have you ever stopped to think about the two words that make up root beer? Taken separately, they tell a lot about this soft drink that is today an icon of Americana. The beverage is made from root (and other) spices, of which, according to Wikipedia, may be included:

vanilla, cherry tree bark, licorice root, sarsaparilla root, sassafras root bark, nutmeg, anise, and molasses, allspice, birch bark, coriander, juniper, ginger, wintergreen, hops, burdock root, dandelion root, spikenard, pipsissewa, guaiacum, yellow dock, honey, clover, cinnamon, prickly ash bark, and yucca.

That’s a pretty large range indeed. As to the “beer” in root beer, well, the authentic versions are actually fermented. Lightly fermented, mostly to impart carbonation rather than alcohol content.

Boston Beer, the makers of the Samuel Adams line of brews, decided to take a stab at what a colonial root beer might taste like. A real, alcoholic root beer that is. Made with molasses, caramelized sugar, vanilla, sassafras, wintergreen and licorice, this is not your father’s beer: but it may be your great, great, great grandfather’s.

This isn’t a root beer to share with the kiddies, and in fact the bottle distinctly warns that this root beer contains alcohol. But it is an interesting take on what might have been brewed in colonial times when hops were occasionally in short supply, and other spices were needed to season beer.

Boston Beer sets a historical background:

Our forefathers were an innovative people. They quickly learned to brew from the local ingredients available to them. Root beer, for instance, comes from the root bark of the sassafras tree, which is native to Eastern North America. Originally added to tea, it was soon adapted for beer. Root beer was also brewed with wintergreen, another indigenous ingredient that is one of the main flavors in root beer today. It’s not hard to imagine Samuel Adams brewing with these ingredients himself, and enjoying this rich beer after a long day of planning a revolution.

Samuel Adams 1790 Root Beer Brew pours to a reddish amber color with a light creamy head formation and an amazingly spicy nose. The most prominent aroma seems to be the wintergreen; sniffing the beer is like sucking on a Lifesaver wintergreen candy, with a hint of vanilla thrown in.

And then you take a sip, and realize that what hit your olfactory senses was nothing compared to the incredible array of flavors that assault your palate. The malt base of the beer is akin to an average pale ale, sans hop flavor. I’m sure enough hops are used to balance some of the sweetness, but they’re drowned out by all of the spice flavors going on.

You do get a bit of sugary sweetness from the caramelized sugar used here. But you also get knocked over by the spicy complexity. First, there’s the cool wintergreen and rooty sassafras. They really stand out here above the rest, I think, putting the root in this root beer. But the vanilla comes through quite nicely, too, and accents the aforementioned flavors while at the same time imparting a creamy flavor.

The licorice is less noticeable, but you can discern it amongst all of the other spices if you try. Least apparent is the molasses, probably used in smaller amounts. The finish is definitely on the sweet side, and the spices deposit a cool and refreshing minty herbal flavor that lingers a while after sipping.

This is one of the most amazing beers I’ve tasted so far this year. Available only in the Samuel Adams Brewer Patriot Collection, it’s a real winner and another great reason to buy this sampler.

Glad I tried it?  T

Would I rebuy it??