Eric’s Gourmet Root Beer Blog

Last week that esteemed root beer collector Vince was in town and had some brews to trade with me. He was staying near Saint Paul so I did a quick search and found that Saint Paul Brewing made their own root beer, so we could meet there and give it a try. I don’t know why Saint Paul Brewing calls it House Made Root Beer! with that exclamation point, but that’s what’s on their menu so I dutifully call it so. They also say that it is root beer with bite, so maybe it’ll be spicy. The brewery (brewing?) itself is made in the ruins of the old Hamm’s Brewery, which was closed in 1997. They’ve reinvigorated it and turned it into the sort of trendy place that’s all the rage these days. They even have a sweet pizza oven but I wasn’t there for pizza so we got our pints and gave it a try.

The Body has a very strong wintergreen flavor in the old fashioned style. There’s a bit of vanilla and a lot of spice. The Bite is sharp, which seems to be their goal. The Head is quite short, but it is there. The Aftertaste is bitter. Too much wintergreen so it ends quite bitter indeed.

Wow, a lot of Bite, but very bitter for a root beer. Maybe beer drinkers would appreciate that but I certainly did not. This isn’t really a brew I’d ever drink, not even with pizza. Which sadly, we didn’t have time to try due to tight schedule constraints. Maybe I’ll go back there some day, probably not, but at least it looks really cool.