Samuel Adams 1790 Root Beer Brew

Formerly brewed at Boston Beer Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Boston, Massachusetts USA

Serve in Lager glass, Tumbler

12 oz bottle served a bit below cellar temperature, from Richmond Beverage in Richmond, VT (June 2006), in a Corsendonk Christmas Ale glass. It pours a murky light brown/brass with a lasting taupe head that is slightly fizzy and leaves fairly thick lacing....strong sweet-spicy aromas, wintergreen and mint, sassafras and vanilla, a bit of caramel perhaps and a bit of cookiedough yeastiness; I find it rather fascinating if not exactly compelling....flavor is as expected rather medicinal/sodalike, something like peppery, minty candy with a long bitter finish, very little real beer character, quite sweet until the very end....watery, fizzy body with a fair bit of acidity. I have to give them credit for making something that tastes like little else I’ve had; reminiscent to some extent of sahti with wintergreen taking the place of juniper, this is one of the most heavily spiced beers I’ve had to the point of not being beerlike at all. I can’t really give it many points in the score for the originality, because it just isn’t drinkable to me, but those with different tastebuds may well love it. Interesting project, I guess.

Very odd little ale from Sam Adams. Very high concentration of molasses in nose and mouth. It scored well with me, but I don’t know if I’d drink it again (if it were even available). Rated 9/10/06

Bottle. Pours a brown body with an off white head. Licorice and hints of birch and burnt and caramelized malt. Hints of vanilla and light woodiness, not bad.

Dark pour with a nice fluffy head. Aroma is a little smokey and sweet and very herbal with some grain. Taste is sweet and odd with some grassy spice and some moss. Caramel and molasses and brown sugar sweetness with a little tingle from anise and vanilla. Strange.

UPDATED: OCT 20, 2010 Drank on monday April 27 2009. Noah’s B-Day! Poured into a Samuel Adams Lager glass. Muddy brown in color, small head. Funky aroma of sassafras and licorice. All kinds of floaties in it... Taste is actually nice. Rootbeer characteristics. Licorice, sassafras, molasses, touch of vanilla and some sugar. Texture is average. Unique beer that I enjoyed sipping on. Huge thanks to stfun (josh) for hooking me up. This one can now be squashed off my wants list!

Bottle thanks to daknole. Dated October 2006. Dark dark cloudy brown-orange with a quick white cover. Great vanilla, sasafrass root beer and slight molasses aroma. Taste is lots of vanilla and sasparilla, molasses, licorice and lingering root beer. Very good, but possibly difficult to drink much of.

Well I finally scored a four pack of the brewer patriot series. This beer is weird folks. Brown pour with a shitload of floating particles. Aroma of sasparilla, syrup and spices. I have no idea if this beer was actually good or not. It was weird with a capital W! Taste was very sweet and spicy with sasparilla, and A&W rootbeer notes. I dont think this was any good fresh. No way!

Ummm...quite strange. Definitely like old-fashioned root beer, but with alcohol. I have never liked the more old fashioned style of root beer, like Barqs..so this was not really my cup of tea. Did not really care for any of the flavors, but it was interesting to try.

Smelled alot like root beer and and a little like anise. The more i drank and the warmer the beer got, tasted more like anise and less like root beer. Good at first and I could barely finish the bottle. Nice try but not for me.