Sprecher – Page 3 – Eric’s Gourmet Root Beer Blog

Sprecher Honey Root Beer

Dec 142016

Sprecher Honey Root Beer Bottle My 300th root beer review! For such a special moment I had to pick a special brew and this one is special indeed. Sprecher Honey Root Beer is a limited edition celebratory soda made in honor of Sprecher Brewing Company’s 30th year. They did a limited production run of only 3000 cases. So it was the natural pick for my 300th, to complete the trifecta of 3 times increasingly larger powers of 10. Also this brau is sweetened with only raw honey. Which is a bold move as too much honey can be dangerous. Yet, I love honey and I love Sprecher, so this should be good. I love the honey themed label, with the demonic raven thingy now clutching a hive. It also says “Craft Soda”. While I prefer to go with the label of gourmet root beer, craft soda/root beer is an appropriate label as well. I’ll write more about those distinctions another day, because the Sprecher is waiting.

The Body is light on standard root beer flavors and very heavy on the honey, being the only sweetener. It’s sort of a fruity raw honey which overpowers the rest of the flavors. The Bite is a light honey bite on the back of your throat. If you’ve ever eaten a spoonful of raw honey, you know what I mean. The carbonation is severely lacking, sadly, which makes the brew even heavier. The Head is pitiful, just pitiful, which is very disappointing. The Aftertaste is more raw honey, some fruity raw honey.

I do love me some honey, but this was too much honey and not enough of the other wonderful flavors that Sprecher has. The low carbonation really killed it for me as well, not only was there no Head, but it was too thick and syrupy without all of those bubbles in it. What a shame. At least it will not be missed after those 3000 cases are gone. See how rates against other root beers.

Sprecher Root Beer Soda

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Apr 222015

Sprecher Root Beer Bottle Another brew that I found in Sacramento on the trip there after my mission. My grandmother mentioned that there was a really nice root beer at a cafe down a few blocks away from her house which prompted me to drop everything and take off to see if there was any truth to the rumor. I found that the stories were true and I bought three bottles. Since it was already cold, I was able to start reviewing it as soon as I got back to the house. I for many years mispronounced the name of this. I always though it was a ‘ch’ sound and not a ‘k’ sound so it’s like the German word to talk. Also, I’m not sure what the crow daemon thing is supposed to be but at least it’s not a dog…

The Body is sweet and smooth with a nice honey flavor to it. One of the best root beer bodies that I have ever tasted. The Bite is there, but not too much, more on the smooth side, like I like it. The Head is good and frothy, but, unfortunately was a little too short to rank higher. The Aftertaste is also very nice with the honey.

Wow! This stuff is great. The only thing that could be improved would to have more vanilla flavor to it and a taller Head. All in all, this is a top notch brew. The fact that they sell this in pints means you always get an extra four ounces of goodness and trust me, you’ll always be wanting it. Since I originally reviewed it the label has changed to add that it was voted #1 by the New York Times. Well, I’m awarding my Seal of Approval, which is far more prestigious than anything in the Times. See how it rates against other root beers.

Hippo Size Beverages Jumbo Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Sep 052012

Was at the Root Beer Store the other day and noticed that they finally started carrying this. I’d known about it for some time from the Orca Beverages website but they utterly refused to make arrangements with me to get some, claiming that I could get anything they sold from the Root Beer Store, when the Root Beer Store clearly didn’t have it. But at last, they did and now I have it. With a name like Hippo Size and Jumbo, you’d think that this would come in some half gallon spring top growler or something. At least a 22 oz like Sparky’s does or at the very least some fat 16 oz bottles like Sprecher. However, it comes in just a regular 12 oz bottle like almost every other root beer. The did put it in the short fat bottles though, so they put in some effort. Then they realized that everyone would be let down by the lack-of-oversized bottle so they flavor texted it with “Small Bottle, Big Taste” I guess it was easier than getting bigger bottles. Despite this, they still say in the fine print that this is “The original Texas size drink” which contradicts their flavor text about it being small. It also claims a recipe that dates to 1927 though I hear they’d been out of business for some time and just recently resurrected.

This has a dark Body with a prominent licorice flavor along with sassafras and some wintergreen. It reminds me of a generic root beer barrel candy flavor (not the A&W ones). There is a strong carbonation Bite like sharp needles on the tongue. You can feel and even hear a bubble release unless it is poured from higher than normal into the glass, strange. Yet, despite all of said carbonation it still sports a “two second Head” which is quite a letdown. The Aftertaste is wintergreen and licorice that is a bit sticky.

Honestly after every drink I just think, generic stout. There really isn’t anything to distinguish this from all of the other dark and licoricey root beers other than the strange bubble release and the lack of distinguishing features. Perhaps that’s the reason it originally went out of business (and not a vast corporate conspiracy to deprive us of root beer variety). I don’t know but I do know that I’d never touch this again. See how it rates against other root beers.

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