The second of four root beers from Reverence Brewing Company. I couldn’t wait to try more (plus I didn’t have a lot of time) so I went back that night after my welcome reception. So this was also the second root beer for the day. The head brewer, Nate, chose to make many different types of root beer because he realized that root beer has several distinct flavor profiles and he wanted to make sure that there would be variety for those different, discerning root beer lovers. Though he said he’d never really had any hard core root beer people before me come in save one father and son (I wonder if they read my blog). This root beer is their darker, herbal brew, the old fashioned time if you will. Thus the dated (pun intended) name. And if you’re wondering why 1840 when root beer didn’t hit the scene till 1876, is that this is styled after the sarsaparillas of old, that were drunk (drank? drunken? drinked?) before Europeans arrived. I am always weary of licorice brews as if done poorly they can be quite overpowering.
The Body is dark with sarsaparilla and licorice flavors. The licorice is on the lighter side so it doesn’t bother me much and it mixes well with the other flavors. The Bite is nice and strong with cinnamon and other spices. The Head is medium but is gone very quickly, sadly. The Aftertaste is spiced wintergreen and licorice that doesn’t linger and ends clean.
Nice! He didn’t overdo it with the licorice and the spices give a nice Bite. It is quite a different flavor profile from his classic, but it’s still good. Not the best and the Head is worse. I like the other better but this is still pretty good.
