Samuel Adams 1790 Root Beer Brew

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

why is this one so low? i understand it may not be for everyone, but what a thoroughly enjoyable, unique, refreshing, and tasty brew! a lot going on here...see brewer's description. it's dead on. recomended.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Dark amber color with a tawny head. Strong, long lasting licorice aroma (slightly medicinal) with wintergreen notes mixed in. Multitude of flavors present in this beer - woody mint, honey, licorice and molasses. There does seem to be a bit of a root beer flavor and aroma as the beer warms and the flavors/smells meld. Interesting beer, glad to have tried it.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 5

Pours a dark, somewhat hazy, amber with a one finger head that fades quickly to a thin spotty cap. The subsequent lacing is thin and disorganized. Smell; this has a very strong sassafras smell, along with some mint and mlidly herbal aromas. A somewhat minty smell comes out after I let this warm a little. On the initial sniffs I thought this didn't smeel to bad, but the mint has me worried. Taste; sassafras is definitely present as it dominates the first couple of sips. After those initial sips some mint/wntegreen makes an unwelcome appearance, as well as a lot of licorice. I like a little licorice, but this was too much for me. As with the smell, the first couple sips weren't that bad, but it just fell apart after that. Mouthfeel is light to medium bodied, and the drinkability just isn't there. While this beer has a lot going on in the aroma and flavor, most of them are very hard for me to deal with. I appluad Sam Adams for trying something different, but this one just wasn't for me.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

This was a hard one to rate. Do I rate it as a beer? Do I rate it as a rootbeer? To start the aroma was very root beer like, with sweet notes, sassafrass and licorice being the most prominant. I like root beer, so I did like the nose. Appearance was a very dark brown, clear with a minimal sized head. Mouthfeel was a bit syrupy but nothing catastrophic. Flavors were vanilla, sassafrass, licorice with a small alcoholic kick. It really wasn't entirely horrible IMO. I could drink one every now and again, but to put back more than one would be a struggle.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 5

Pours a cloudy brown with very little head. A strong herbal aroma lead by an overabundance of licorice makes for an almost interesting smell, but makes it nearly undrinkable. It got easier to drink as I went along, but it never reached anything I’d describe as enjoyable.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 4 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 4

Wow. This is an entire cornucopia of flavors -- most of them not normally seen nor brewed with in decades (centuries?).

"Blackstrap molasses, sassafras root bark, dried wintergreen, and licorice." Yikes, that's a whole butt-ton worth of ingredients that I normally never think about!

But really? After cracking this open, and pouring about half of the 12-oz bottle into one of my Stone Old Guardian stubby glasses, and giving it some time to warm up some, giving it a honest chance to try to impress me -- it still kinda sucked. *But*, if nothing else, I can respect that this is perhaps what the Founding Fathers thought to be what a Winter Warmer ought to taste like -- and, in that case, this doesn't suck as much.

The Dried Wintergreen is the weakest link with this beer. I can stand a beer made with a bunch of molasses, and sassafras, and even anise (aka licorice). But the Wintergreen? That's crossing the line from "unique historical artifact" to "shitty chewing gum-ish mess", in my book.

This beer does has some interesting aspects to it -- please don't mistake me. But the Wintergreen really throws everything that could be gained by the other ingredients out the window. In other words, what could be a "B-grade" beer -- without bonus points for the historical angle -- goes straight into the gutter with the "Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun. With Double Mint Gum" overbearing wintergreen profile.

The farther you go into this beer, the worse it gets, IMHO. An unworkable, unrepairable mess of a beer -- that could be so much more interesting.

Music; Christian Death's "Hour Of The Wolf"
//TB

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6

This beer poured a medium brownish/amber color filled with setiment with a smaller off white head that left veryy little lace. The aroma is very strong rootbeer with some light licorice and vanilla tones as well. The mouthfeel was light to medium bodied. The flavor is very different and is a strong rootbeer flavor with some very sweet vanilla flavors as well. A beer that is definetly worth trying at least once.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Poured a cloudy brown color with a very small off white head that left a small amount of lace the aroma was very much of root beer flavor was mostly of vanilla and honey with sweet malts i liked this beer very different

Aroma: 2 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 3

Sampled from bottle. Pours murky red-brown with quite a bit of sediment and a scattered, sudsy head. Aroma is not beery, but has an interesting boquet of spices: vanilla, anise and ginger. Flavor is interesting, but certainly not good. Not much like root beer and not like beer. More ginger & spices at any rate. Well-carbonated and medium-bodied. I feel sorry for the poor souls who were compelled to drink this style some 200 years ago.

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 4 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 4

Pours a very cloudy, light brown with average head. The aroma is anise, plain and simple, nothing beery whatsoever. The flavor is strong black licorice, with the sweetness cut by herbal hops. Syrupy body is salvaged by strong carbonation. It is what it is.