Sprecher root beer

Background information: (from the website) "Sprecher Brewing Co. was founded in 1985 by RANDAL SPRECHER, formerly a brewing supervisor at Pabst Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. From 1985 to 1994, the brewery was located at 730 W. Oregon Street in Milwaukee's Walker's Point area. Through the first ten years the company grew steadily as more and more people found out about Sprecher's high quality beers and sodas. Finally, the company had outgrown its original facility and began looking for a new location to continue its growth.

In 1994, Sprecher purchased its current building, located at 701 W. Glendale Ave., a former elevator car factory. The new, larger brewery enabled the company to continue growing, and allowed more people to enjoy all of Sprecher's fine products."

(from the bottle label) "This truly old fashioned soda has the rich, creamy flavor that only comes from using pure Wisconsin honey direct from the combs.  Our extracts are prepared at the brewery in a hand-made, gas-fired brew kettle, by combining honey, vanilla and a host of aromatic botanicals.  The dark, honeyed brew will build a delicious frothy head when properly poured into a frosted mug."


Product details: 16 fl. oz.  Manufactured by Sprecher Brewing Co., Inc., Glendale, WI 53209.  220 calories, 54g sugar.  Glass bottle with twist off top. www.sprecherbrewery.com


Ingredients: Carbonated water, glucose syrup, malto-dextrin, WI raw honey, natural & artificial flavors, sodium benzoate (preservative), phosphoric acid, quillaia/yucca extract, sodium chloride, caramel color, and vanilla.


My thoughts: Like a Michael Bay film, this root beer is bigger, louder, and ultimately devoid of anything meaningful.  Whereas most root beer bottles clock in at 12 oz, this one trumps that puny quantity with 16 oz.  The name and label design make it look German (probably playing off of Germany's history of beer) and they have a playful mascot, suggesting a giant bottle of fun!  But just as Transformers 3 was bigger and louder, that most certainly didn't translate into better.  The root beer taste is average, with nothing special to note.  Aftertaste is similar to character development in Transformers 3, as there is no additional development beyond the initial introduction and it seems no particular spice is willing to step forward and make itself felt.  It's still decent, but again -like Transformers 3- sort of boring.  It manages to get a few things right, as it is decently sweet and the carbonation is spot on.  I'd go so far as to say that the sweetness and carbonation are to this root beer what The Rock and The Island are to Michael Bay's movie catalog.  Overall, the bombastic nature of some aspects (size and packaging) outweigh the actual content, promising great things but only delivering mediocrity.  This root beer, while better than Transformers 3, is more akin to the original Transformers; good, but could have been better.


Rating: C+
flavor: C+
aftertaste: C-
sweetness: B+
smoothness: C
carbonation: A