One day a fan emailed me and told me that I should try St. Arnold Root Beer. So I got on Google and went to find where it was made and learned about the St. Arnold Brewing Company and their root beer. It’s made using Imperial Cane Sugar which sounds like it should be used to make Empire Root Beer and not this. The label sports a picture of St. Arnold himself, a man who was a 6th century bishop and an ancestor of Charlemagne whose blessed remains caused beer to multiply in abundance to quench the thirst of fatigued pilgrims. I’m thinking that’s what inspired the owners to name the brewery after him. He is also not to be confused with Saint Amandus who is the patron saint of all who brew beer. This is the only second known root beer to be named after a religious leader (Brigham’s Brew being the first) and gives me great hopes that I’ll see more in the future (I’m looking at you Hare Krishnas, I want my Swami Prabhupada Root Beer).
It has a rich, dark, rooty Body that is at the same time very creamy. The Bite boldly hits you as soon as the brew enters your mouth and stays with you a bit. It is sharp and spicy. The Aftertaste is very creamy and lingers a long time, which is to be desired. The Head however, is weak, too weak. It is, however, frothy.
Another otherwise excellent brew ruined by the lack of a good Head. It always makes me sad when that happens. This is a delicious root beer but doesn’t excel quite enough for the Seal. See how it rates against other root beers.
The final brew from my journey to UT and the only one in a bottle. I snagged four bottles of it on my way to the Salt Lake airport making 4 new root beers in a three day trip. I must say this was the most successful trip yet as far as root beer is concerned. Brigham’s Brew is brewed by Wasatch Brewery and to my knowledge is the only root beer to be named after religious leader (unless there’s some Innocent XII brew I’ve heretofore missed), taking the celebrity root beer names to a whole new level. I find it ironic that a root beer named after the second Mormon Prophet, Brigham Young, would be made by non-Mormons (this is, of course, assuming that owning a brewery precludes one from also being in full fellowship with the church) but then again he was also the first Governor of Deseret (Utah before it was a state) so they’re probably just tipping their hats to Utah’s founder. Plus, if their brewery had been around then, the root beer would have been the only one that Brigham Young would have drank. That’s actually a really good marketing strategy. Maybe we’ll see founders’ brews from other major religions that forbid alcohol in their holy cities someday. 
