Samuel Adams 1790 Root Beer Brew

Brewed by Boston Beer Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Boston, Massachusetts USA

Only slightly hazy to my sense of it, yellow-amber with some lasting foam. Impressive aroma, having a sense of root beer with a huge piece of medical guaze soaking in it. The flavor has impressive complexity, but it is born from excessive spicing and by the end of the bottle I wasn’t enjoying it. There was too much: sassafras is very prominent (leading me to think of it more as sassafras rather than root beer in the American "Barq’s" sense), ginger, pepper, tree bark, cinnamon, molasses, black licorice, and Listerine. Just too much. It leaves a bit of a sharp bitterness, perhaps metallic but more attributable to the spices. An impressive bit of creativity and great labeling/packaging, but the beer isn’t all that.

Poured a murky deep copper body with a moderate head. Lacing was fairly good, I was surprised. Aroma is a mess of spices. Yes,it sorta smells like rootbeer. I mainly got licorice, mint and wintergreen. Vanilla and molasses are hard to find. As far as beer notes, there’s a malt base that adds some caramel, but it’s not enough. 90% of the flavor is the spices, not malt/hops. The minty licorice flavor dances on the tongue and lingers. I didn’t mind the spice flavors, but I wasn’t exactly craving them either. I don’t think this is very balaced either, mainly because the spices took over everything else. It’s medium to light bodied and I don’t think that works here. I wonder how this would score if it said Fantome instead of Sam Adams...

The 12 ounce bottle poured a hazy reddish brown beverage with a thin off-white head that lasted well throughout the tasting and left some lacing on the glass. The aroma was very spicy & herbal. I could pick out sassafras and licorice predominately but was unable to detect any wintergreen, molasses or vanilla (as advertised). It had a medium body with soft carbonation and a syrupy texture. The flavor was similar to root beer as you might expect. It starts off quite sweet and pretty much stays that way trough the finish. It is finally in the finish that I could detect wintergreen. This was a nice novelty but I wouldn’t want to drink it on a regular basis.

Part of my Brewer Patriot 4-pack. Pours a hazy brown orange with a small film of off-white head. Aroma is of root beer, though you’re able to better pick out the ingredients--licorice and wintergreen--also some slight alcohol. There is some astringency also that kinda ruins the smell. There is way too much mint in this. All the flavors are separate and don’t meld together at all. Light carbonation, thin mouthfeel. I was excited to have a real root beer beer, but I guess these things must only work in theory, because in actuality, it kinda sucks.

Olney Beer & Fine Wine tasting. Brown, with golden edges. Candy sugar, light in the nose. Weak mouthfeel, with honey and light malts; root beer strongly present in the finish.

It had a good smell. It had a nice color. That’s where this beer ended. Too sickening of a licorice flavor. Reminded me of cough syrup. If this is what our founding father’s had to look forward after a long day at work, they probably all went back to work after one taste.

Well, how can I kill a beer like this? They accomplished exactly what they stated as a purpose on the front of the bottle. I certainly am in no position to challenge the historicity of such a creation, either. But, when all is said and done, it just isn’t for me, a bad combination of flavors. Aroma was sassafras, vanilla, and licorice. The flavor was an odd mix of all that and mint (the latter another key ingredient to root beer, so I guess they had to throw it in here too). A bitter-sweet finish, lots of unfermented malts/sugars left over? Mouthfeel was light moderate, undercarbonated, and the head very week. Murky light brown in color (some amber hues). I think you nailed this one, Sammy, but I’m still not sure why anyone would set out to do such a thing. A neat experience, I guess.

Total Wine, Tampa Fl - part of Patriot 4-pak. Murky, light copper pour with a thin but creamy off-white head. Aroma of horehound candy and Carbona cleaner. Flavor has some candy sweetness, yes similar to root beer candy and other old fashioned hard candies. Some ripening vegetables make their way in there way as well - but in a pleasant way - similar to a marzen. Thickish mouthfeel. Good spiciness - put together well, without being overdone.