Black Bear root beer

Background information: (from the website) "Today Sprecher is one of the only breweries in the U.S. that uses fire brewing to create craft beer and soda with bold flavor. It is fire-brewing, plus Raw honey, that makes Sprecher Root Beer the best-tasting root beer in the United States. Don’t believe us? Ask the New York Times. The popularity of Sprecher’s unique craft beverages has led to continued expansion of the Glendale, Wisconsin facilities. In February of 2020, Randy Sprecher retired having achieved his dreams. He wanted the company to stay in local hands, so he sold it to a small team of Milwaukee investors.

 In these capable hands, Sprecher will continue to fire-brew delicious craft sodas and beers in the Milwaukee area. Visit today to see what we are up to! Take the tour to see our lab, brewhouse, and production area, and learn all about our history and craft brewing process. Then, relax in our beer garden and sample craft beverages while munching on local snacks. Become part of the Sprecher story—visit today. Prost!"

Product details: 12 fl. oz.  Sprecher Brewing Co,. Glendale, WI 53209. 140 calories, 5g sugar. Glass bottle with twist off top (though I had to pry it off since it was so tight). https://www.local1860.com/

Ingredients: Carbonated water, glucose syrup, contains 2% or less of: natural and artificial flavors, caramel color, gum arabic, sodium benzoate (preservative), citric acid, phosphoric acid, yucca extract, propylene glycol alginate.

My thoughts: I haven't had the best opinion of Sprecher root beers, with them failing to deliver on many fronts, though consistently disappointing in the flavor department. Will this side brand finally deliver the goods, or will it just be bearable? Let's pull out those claws and find out.

My initial flavor impression is that this is a fairly basic root beer. It has a bit of the expected rooty sassafras flavor, though a little watery feeling (maybe due to the carbonation, which I'll touch on in a moment). I can't really call out any specific spices, though the aftertaste (which fades away extremely fast) gives me just the slightest impression of cinnamon.

Okay, time for the carbonation...well, time for the complete absence of any carbonation. I heard the expected hiss of gas escaping when I popped the top, but inside is a completely flat root beer; not a single bubble to be found. I don't think I've ever had a root beer this flat before. There is no date of manufacture that I can see on the bottle to indicate if maybe I got an old one off the shelf. Sweetness is good, and I don't feel like it leaves an overly syrupy coating in my mouth. Of all the things this root beer is getting wrong, at least they got this one right. The nutrition facts list this at 35g, while the normal root beer is around 40g (+/-2g), so this one is less sugared than usual and I don't find it lacking at all, so job well done, even if it's not a cane sugar. With the complete lack of carbonation, I don't feel I can give this an accurate smoothness score, so am skipping that criteria in this review.

Well, this is completely disappointing. The lackluster flavor profile mixed with the absolute absence of carbonation made this a less than ideal root beer experience. The flavor follows in classic Sprecher form, with nothing special going on. What's odd is regular Sprecher carbonation is at an A-level, but then their maple and now this are awful. Between the three, I'm starting to think Sprecher should reconsider being in the root beer game at all, as they're not succeeding.

Rating: D+
flavor: C-
aftertaste: D
sweetness: A-
smoothness: n/a

carbonation: F-