Samuel Adams 1790 Root Beer Brew

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

Pours a slightly cloudy light brown with an ample rocky beige head. Aroma is full on licorice, molasses and wintergreen. The alcohol plays a very prominent role and the beer finished with a long sweet swallow. Complex and unique with a numbing quality on the tongue. I really enjoyed this extremely offbeat brew.

A straight forward aroma of root beer follows the opening and pouring of the bottles content. Also has elements of ginger, vanilla and strangely enough smoked chipotle. After the first taste of this beer i was disgusted. I was indeed mislead by the aroma and imagined a sweet carbonated drink with tons of sugar. However i am right about one thing, and that’s the sweetness of this beer; almost like a carbonated ginger root ale blended with very green and fresh herbs such as mint or oregano. I won’t go as far as to say this beer is incredible or anything but certainly agaisnt the grain.

Pours a slightly hazy amber color with a faint off white head. Nice lacing. Aroma is big time sassafras. Flavor is sweet and very spicey. The flavor seems to linger. This is not your every day beer. I wouldn’t slam a six of this stuff, but I would recommend it to a friend. This is no root beer. Go ahead beer geeks, turn your nose up at this beer. SA did a good job on this series. You should try.

Yummy. This is an awesome beer. I would hope that Sam would cosider making this as either a seasonal or a full time brew. I can’t begin to describe this, Just buy it and drink it.

Poured light brown with decent cream head. Smells like regular root beer, but more candied. Horrible minty flavor. Sharp bitterness that lingers on the tongue and leaves an awful licorice aftertaste. Mouthfeel is over-carbonated. Yuck. I was interested in sampling a true root beer, but this was truly a case of be careful what you wish for.

One of the 4 brews in the Patriot’s Collection (and one which would have been better left to the history books). Opaque light brown pour under a small and quickly dissipating head. Aroma of wintergreen and cinamon. Tasted like a Wal-Mart type generic root beer mixed with mouthwash. Very highly carbonated mouthfeel and medicinal finish. Stick with a Hires or A&W if you need something for your vanilla ice cream.

Copper color with a moderate light tan head. Very strong aromas with cloves, licorice, wintergreen, horehound and litany of other herbs. Herbs and molasses converge in the flavors, like a spiced cookie. Some malt and qualities detected, but the flavors are so overpowering at times it seems to get lost. Perhaps as a after dinner shot, akin to jaegermeister, this would have a place, but to set down with a flagon of this would be less than desirable.

Murky amber to orange color with nice tan head. Smells somewhat like a root beer soda. Sort of tastes like a root beer soda. But the various flavors need to meld. The molasses and licorice seem to dominate the flavor and overwhelm the other flavors. Needs better balance. As is it isn’t very good.