1790 Root Beer Brew
Samuel Adams in Boston, Massachusetts, United States 🇺🇸
Spiced / Herbed / Vegetable / Honey - Herbal Rotating Out of Production|
Score
5.06
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The intensity of this unfiltered brew is immediately evident with spicy, herbal notes of sassafras, wintergreen and licorice. These are balanced with the sweetness of caramelized sugar, molasses, and vanilla.
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6.4/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 5.5
Brown bottle, 12 ounces, trip to Beers of the world (rochester) with Dum, Ian and Lubière, best before October 2006, purchased on August 26 2006; eye: dirty brown, fleeting white head, light effervescence, lightly hazy; nose: root beer, vanilla, molasses, herbs, spices, black licorice; mouth: root beer, blakc licorice, herbs, spices, finale in root beer with presence of black licorice and slight bitterness, then followed by vanilla, mildly sweet, medium body, rather thin and sticky, lighlty acidic; overall: special and quite pleased to have try it FRANÇAIS Bouteille brune, 12 onces, voyage à Beers of the world avec Dum, Ian et Luc; meilleure avant octobre 2006, acheté le 26 août 2006; oeil : brune sale, petite mousse blanche fugace, légère effervescence, voilée; nez : bière d’épinette, vanille, mélasse, herbes, épices, réglisse noire; bouche : bière d’épinette, réglisse noire, herbes, épices, finale en bière d’épinette avec une pointe de réglisse noire et d’amertume, puis apparition de la vanille, moyennement sucrée, corps moyen, plutôt mince et collante, bonne carbonatation, légèrement acide; en résumé : spécial et bien content de l’avoir essayé
Tried
from Bottle
on 28 Oct 2006
at 12:43
4.4/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 4
Flavor 5
Texture 4
Overall 3.5
Bottle. This is "best by October 2006," so I ’d better stop putting this off. Smell is like very thick licorice. Pour is cloudy brown, very little head. Taste has, yes, some sassafras and wintergreen, but it’s also unpleasantly like strongly flavored pipe tobacco that’s burnt halfway through. Yeah, very intense in spices, not much for malt, and presumably without hops. Well, c’mon, now! Everyone should try something like this at least once. How authentic this is, I can’t say, but Jim Koch had the cajones to go ahead and sell this oddball beer.
Tried
from Bottle
on 06 Oct 2006
at 00:33
3.4/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 3
Flavor 4
Texture 2
Overall 2.5
Pour is a cloudy brown with a white head. Aroma is black licorice and reminds me of jagermister which im not fond of. Flavor is a little better. Some molasses and caramel with notes of vanilla. Still this is almost in the awful catagory. I can understand trying something new as a brewer but when it sucks just dump it and start over.
Tried
from Can
on 15 Sep 2006
at 15:38
3.8/10
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Appearance 4
Aroma 3
Flavor 2
Texture 8
Overall 4
Bottle pours a murky light orange brown with no head. Coarse thin lacing. Aroma is a starting assault on the olfactory. Band-Aids, alcohol, orange zest, plastic, and some sweet spicy wintergreen. Flavor is very odd. Halls cough drops, wintergreen, licorice, honey, and a wierd, glue like bitter aftertaste. The palate however is a very rich smooth and moderately fizzy feel. I suppose that is the bright spot. Thanks Pinkzambia for letting me experiance this.
Tried
from Bottle
on 20 Aug 2006
at 21:45
4.5/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 5
Flavor 3
Texture 6
Overall 4
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.
Tried
on 01 Aug 2006
at 21:31
2.6/10
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Appearance 4
Aroma 3
Flavor 2
Texture 4
Overall 1.5
Minimal head over a dark amber body. Aromas of licorice and wintergreen are easy to pick up, but sassafras is in the background somewhere... Flavor is... well, not my thing. Really antiseptic flavoring burries anything resembling beer, root beer or even anything I would want to finish... It all ended well as it made its way to the drain.
Tried
on 27 Jul 2006
at 23:57
3.8/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 2
Texture 2
Overall 2
I just want to get it out of the way that I love root beer, especially root beers made by beer brewers. This does not work though. The beer is reddish amber with a thin beige head with a thicker ring around the outside. Spotty lacing. The smell is like a root beer Dum Dum. Medium body with a flavor one would expect if Robitussin made a root beer cough syrup. The finish is syrupy and tastes like licorice and root beer. It’s too bad this feels like a failed experiment because I was looking forward to trying this beer. Unfortunately the final result is more like a bag of the A&W syrup that is added to soda water for a fountain drink.
Tried
on 17 Jul 2006
at 11:07
8.1/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 9
Texture 8
Overall 8.5
Bottle. Deep sassafras root aroma - licorice comes out as it warms - just like old fashioned sassafras tea (this brings back childhood memories of growing up in the midwest - if you’re not familiar with sassafras tea, it’ll just smell like flat root beer or medicine if you’re Australian). Cloudy orange brown color with small head. Sweet earthy sassafras root flavor with hint of wintergreen coming out - wood smoke and bitterness come out in the end. For most people, this will just taste like crappy root beer to them and that will be the end of it. But I think this is an absolutely brilliant beer especially given the historical significance. The natural sassafras and wintergreen flavor are absolutely mind-blowing - as I’ve had both fresh sassafras and wintergreen teas - you get both these flavors with this and they are definitely not artificial. This really isn’t going to fit into most peoples idea of beer, but as a midwestern boy, it’s like a drink of home.
Tried
from Bottle
on 14 Jul 2006
at 18:14
3.9/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 2
Texture 2
Overall 2.5
Smells like, well, root beer - tastes like Bath and Body Works smells - finishes like dish soap - nuff said.
Tried
on 12 Jul 2006
at 20:19
6/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 5
Texture 4
Overall 6
2006 bottle shared with OldGrowth on 7/6/06.
Light olive-brown, with a slight hint of burnished copper edging up from the darker tinted browns. Off-white head is actually well-retained here. It eventually fades to cover, but in doing so, leaves plenty of lacing and remains at cover until the end. Very strong retention, especially taking in to account the fact that these spices usually kill head retention. True to its word, there is sediment on the bottom.
Strong black licorice in the nose is immediately noted. Dry, very dry, with a peppery feel and on its tail is a quick shot of wintergreen that shoots up the nose. Some light honeyish-like sugars attempt to resolve this heavy spiciness, but it’s immensely dry and certainly not subtle. Still, there is some light chocolate and brown bread dough noted on the edges.
Quite refreshing though, as it is extremely dry and the notes are interesting and real.The balance seems to go downhill in the flavor, the spices lending a near astringency on the end that confounds the palate. Quite attenuated, not enough malt comes to the rescue. Granted I dont believe this to be an attempt at a sweet/chewy beer, but a balance still much be achieved somewhow. Almost pastey or chalky, but dry and papery as well at points. Heavy black licorice and wintergreen with just faint traces of vanilla on the end. Mouthfeel is a bit loose, but the carbonation is natural. Drinkable, but ultimately, overdone on the spices.
As I was just reading in "Farmhouse Ales", most saison brewers believe that the spices should never be so prominent as to be able to be picked out individually, and I agree. I think it holds true to any beer brewed with a melange of spices.
Light olive-brown, with a slight hint of burnished copper edging up from the darker tinted browns. Off-white head is actually well-retained here. It eventually fades to cover, but in doing so, leaves plenty of lacing and remains at cover until the end. Very strong retention, especially taking in to account the fact that these spices usually kill head retention. True to its word, there is sediment on the bottom.
Strong black licorice in the nose is immediately noted. Dry, very dry, with a peppery feel and on its tail is a quick shot of wintergreen that shoots up the nose. Some light honeyish-like sugars attempt to resolve this heavy spiciness, but it’s immensely dry and certainly not subtle. Still, there is some light chocolate and brown bread dough noted on the edges.
Quite refreshing though, as it is extremely dry and the notes are interesting and real.The balance seems to go downhill in the flavor, the spices lending a near astringency on the end that confounds the palate. Quite attenuated, not enough malt comes to the rescue. Granted I dont believe this to be an attempt at a sweet/chewy beer, but a balance still much be achieved somewhow. Almost pastey or chalky, but dry and papery as well at points. Heavy black licorice and wintergreen with just faint traces of vanilla on the end. Mouthfeel is a bit loose, but the carbonation is natural. Drinkable, but ultimately, overdone on the spices.
As I was just reading in "Farmhouse Ales", most saison brewers believe that the spices should never be so prominent as to be able to be picked out individually, and I agree. I think it holds true to any beer brewed with a melange of spices.
Tried
from Bottle
on 09 Jul 2006
at 16:39