I had already reviewed this in a growler a long time ago, and then they started bottling. This put me in a difficult position as to what to do. I like having a bottle for the collection, but I wasn’t sure if I should review it again. My Facebook followers were all of the opinion that I should review it since it is in a bottle it is a different root beer. Then I checked the recipe and realized it was different. If you remember my first Rogue review I mused over their inconsistency of whether they used 6 or 12 ingredients. This was due to their own site. With their new recipe they decided to take a nice happy medium of 9 ingredients to no doubt satisfy the dueling factions within the brewery. Two of those nine ingredients are just different types of honeys, and the only sweetener is brown sugar. They also added sarsaparilla flavor to it which was definitely not there before. The bottle itself is very cool; 22 ounces and painted. You almost never get painted bottles anymore.
The Body is dark and complex with licorice and a slight hint of vanilla. However, the dominant flavor is fruity sarsaparilla which is also a little sour. The Bite is spicy and sour, it is okay. The Head is excellent anyway you look at it. The Aftertaste is sour with a fruity sarsaparilla flavor
Yeah, I do not like this. It’s much worse than it was before. I think too much brown sugar but really it was too much sarsaparilla. I wish they had toned down the sarsaparilla in it. And where was the honey flavor? I mean if you put two different types of honey, you would think that it would be noticeable, but no. I suppose if you like sour sarsaparillas with licorice; this may just be the brew for you. I will pass. See how it rates against other root beers.
