Root Beer Review #10 – Sprecher Root Beer

This root beer is fire-brewed and comes in a 16 oz bottle rather than the traditional 12 oz bottle. The bottle says it’s ranked #1 by the New York Times. I didn’t notice this until after tasting the root beer, but Logan said it may have influenced her judgment of root beer character.

Logan and I had this root beer paired with our homemade pizza on the grill. A very good combination for sure!

Logan thought it was fizzy and was very good on the palate. Even the next day she said, “That was an excellent root beer!” and possibly the best root beer so far. I really liked it, and thought that it was a great example of a brewery root beer. It was rich, bubbly and had very solid flavor. I thought it lacked a little pizzaz of additional flavors, but I just added a “z” to my pizza, and everything worked out.

I refrain from reading the website and other people’s reviews until I’ve completed my taste test, and I was not surprised to see that it does come from a tried and true brewery in Wisconsin. What’s so special about this root beer?  Well, according to their website:

“This truly old fashioned soda has the rich, creamy flavor that only comes from using pure Wisconsin honey direct from the combs. Our extracts are prepared at the brewery in a hand-made, gas-fired brew kettle, by combining honey, pure vanilla and a host of aromatic botanicals. The dark, honeyed brew will build a delicious, frothy head when properly poured into a frosted mug.”

Up until now, I’ve been using room-temperature glasses with cold root beer. The Horror! I feel so freshman. I’ll be going for the freezer cold mugs from this point forward. I have observed a noticeable difference in flavor between cold and room temperature root beer. Cold has always been better, and a frosted mug makes perfect sense.

This root beer is definitely one that I want at a root beer tasting panel. It has a solid flavor base, a good amount of fizz but not overpowering, and a true pleasure to drink. I only wish it had more flavor from the aromatic botanicals, but this could be a personal preference. If I were a beer connoisseur, I would search out their alcoholic brews to see if they’re as good as the root beer. Their sodas are reasonably priced for a case, and I will definitely be looking at their other flavors in the future!

Derek’s Rating: 9.5

Here are the rankings so far:

9.5 Sprecher Root Beer
9.1 River City Root Beer
9.0 Americana Root Beer
8.1 maine root handcrafted rootbeer
8.0 Virgil’s Root Beer
7.7 Chicago Root Beer
7.2 O-So Butterscotch Root Beer
3.6 towne club root beer
3.4 Dad’s Old Fashioned Root Beer
2.5 Mug Old Fashioned Root Beer