The second root beer from my Raleigh trip. I honestly never know when or if I’ll be back to visit that customer so I had to try and get all of the root beers I could. Clouds Brewing was started in 2015 with the original intent of “German inspired, American made” beer. They also were wise enough to have an American inspired, American made root beer, which puts them head and shoulders above most other breweries. They’ve got a brew house and a tap room, but only the tap room serves the root beer on draft, while the brewhouse with the full restaurant serves it in cans *shudder* so I couldn’t eat my dinner there that night, but since the tap room was a short five minutes from my hotel, I could easily drop by before dinner.
The Body is sweet and complex with wintergreen and vanilla, some licorice and other spices with an old fashioned flavor profile. There’s really a lot going on in there and it blends well. There’s some solid Bite from said spices but it is still rather smooth. The Head is medium and lasts awhile. The Aftertaste is wintergreen that turns bitter but then finishes with a buttery caramely vanilla-ish flavor that is really quite nice.
This is truly a sipping brew, if you drink it fast the bitterness becomes overpowering but if you take small sips that final, lovely flavor can shine. I feel a Seal of Approval brew needs to be one that you can both sip and chug, which this is sadly not. But it is quite a fine brew to sit back and relax with if you want to visit the tap room for awhile.
