Topic Archives: Hard Root Beer
Abita Bayou Bootlegger Hard Root Beer
Abita Bayou Bootlegger Hard Root Beer hits shelves this month. The first hard root beer the the Louisiana brewery.
Abita already has one of the best non-alcoholic root beers created by a small brewery. (You can get kegs of it too.) Their root beer features pure Louisiana cane sugar; a taste you notice immediately.
Abita is building on root beer’s success with a pure cane sugar, alcoholic version – the first in a line of Bayou Bootlegger hard sodas. The base recipe is the same, brewed/fermented to 5.9% alcohol by volume.
David Blossman, President and CEO of Abita Brewing Company. “It only made sense for us to enhance our already famous root beer with this fun, new twist.”
Abita Bayou Bootlegger Hard Root Beer is naturally gluten free, and caffeine free. The flavor profile delivers aromas of wintergreen, vanilla and sassafras, with hints of clove and anise. Available in 12 ounce bottles in Louisiana in December. Nationally in 2016.
Style: Hard Root Beer
Availability: 12oz Bottles, Draft
Release: December, 2015
5.9% ABV
Bayou Bootlegger’s namesake is inspired by New Orleans’ original bayou bootlegger, Jean Lafitte, the early-19th century French pirate and smuggler.
Anheuser-Busch is launching their own hard root beer
Update: Just as soon as this post went live, pictures showed up of Best Damn Root Beer out in the wild. Anheuser-Busch/Best Damn Brewing will be rolling out Best Damn Root Beer. Nationally by December.
Back in July, Anheuser-Busch purchased the BestDamn.com, and shortly after, Best Damn Apple Ale became the landing page.
At the time, it looked like A-B was looking for a new way to compete with the MillerCoors product – Redd’s Apple Ale. (That they will own soon.)
Now there’s this – Best Damn Root Beer . Pabst’s Small Town Brewery’s Not Your Father’s Root Beer is making millions, and it looks like that has caught Anheuser’s attention.
Best Damn Root Beer is a new label registered to Best Damn Beer Co., via Anheuser-Busch, Saint Louis, Missouri. The root beer’s tagline – Ale aged on vanilla beans, 5.5% ABV.
Best Damn Root Beer is available in 12 ounce cans, and draft, thanks to these pictures from a Beer Street Journal reader.
Developing…
Not Your Father’s Root Beer Released in Cans
Not Your Father’s Root Beer seemingly became a hit overnight. Small Town Brewery’s alcoholic root beer has made over $7 million dollars in the first half of 2015 alone.
Nationally, 12 ounce cans of the root beer are hitting shelves now alongside its 12 ounce counterpart.
If you haven’t had it, we can attest – it truly does taste like root beer. The 5.9% alcohol by volume is hidden quite well, making it dangerous for those with a sweet tooth.
Not Your Father’s Root Beer is a year round offering in bottles and cans.
Style: Hard Root Beer
Availability: 12oz Bottles, 12oz Cans
5.9% ABV
Berghoff Rowdy Root Beer Debuts in July
Berghoff Rowdy Root Beer, a new alcoholic root beer, debuts this July.
To create Berghoff Rowdy Root Beer, the brewery took a flavorless porter that was mixed with root beer flavoring. The brewing team worked with Northwestern Extract in order to archive the well known, and hopefully perfect, root beer flavor. Overall, it took Berghoff 15 different iterations to get it right.
The recipe, while different from Berghoff’s traditional root beer, combines the creaminess of the original with an appealing bite. The after tones taste of some of the delicious malts that the beer is created with.
Berghoff Rowdy Root Beer will be available in 12oz cans, and draft.
Style: Hard Root Beer
Availability: 12oz Cans, Draft.
Release: July, 2015
6.6% ABV
