Samuel Adams 1790 Root Beer Brew

The intensity of this unfiltered brew is immediately evident with spicy, herbal notes of sassafras, wintergreen and licorice. These are balanced with the sweetness of caramelized sugar, molasses, and vanilla.

2.4

279 reviews

Boston, United States

Community reviews

3.0 12oz bottle courtesy of markwise. Pours a reddish-orange-brown with thin tan head. Aroma is decidedly root beer with notes of spice, ginger, grain, and hops. Flavor is also strongly root beer with some licorice, smoke, sweet and malty notes. Sweet malty finish with a medium body.

3.8 A real solid brew by Sam Adams. I enjoyed the overtones of the sassafras, and the little bit of vanilla and spice that even and smooth out the beer ever so nicely.

2.7 This is a decent beer, and for the purpose of tasting old-school-esque brews, it fits the bill. It pours a reddish-yellow color with lots of particles. It has a grassy-ginigery-licorice style aroma. The flavor has a good deal of smoke in it with flavors of wood, anise, black licorice and some sweet malt sticking around. This one will not really be good with a float...

2.9 Interesting. Smells like anise with some cinnamon or allspice in the backround, vanilla too. Smells good. Dark orange and a white head. Has a smokey wood taste too it, coffee on the aftertaste. Some maple in there too. Not something I would drink again.

1.9 Bottle: Cloudy brown pour with lots of swirling particles and sediment. Medium beige head and plenty of thick lacing. Smells like root beer, but more intense. Taste is strong of herbals and earthiness. The wintergreen and raw spiciness takes over. Dry, herbal, and abrasive. Didn’t have the will to finish this...

2.2 I really had high hopes for this, because I love root beer, and it had that nose, albeit a bit spicier and herbal, but the flavor is just bland on the malt body and the mouthfeel, but it just kills you with spices, such as ginger and molasses, I could not finish the bottle. Beautiful packaging though.

2.7 12 oz.bottle from notes. Pours a hazy amber color with the smallest head and a plethora of floaties. The aroma is very much the sasparilla style of root beer along with licorice and spearmint wintergreen gum. The flavor has all of the same with some ginger and caramel thrown in. A different experience, but not something to revisit.

2.1 12 oz bottle from my notes Aroma of a typical root beer, taste is of a lot of ginger and sasparilla soda blended with licorice.

3.2 (thx 2 puzzl) Tried a 2 year expired bottle, i am was scared to try it.... Extremely perfume scented with some licorice rootbeer, ginger toothpaste scent. This is one of the very few beers i have ever had where i can smell it untill the very end. My aroma rating would have been a 9 but it is almost to strong. A deep honey amber with TONS of floating particals. (my appear. rating would have been a 4 because of the great color, but the particals look very scarry) I am really hoping this is just spicing and maybe hops and not anything real nastly. Strong but not overpowering flavor, mild but very destinctive flavor. Citrus roobeer, sarsaparilla spicey, ginger/vanilla, and moe sugary molasses rootbeer. Very sweet and slightly sticky finish. Very interested, i wish i could of had this fresh and be less nervous about drinking it, but from what i had it wasn’t that bad, very different that anything else.

2.4 Bottle, 5.5%. Very perfumy aroma, horse, goat, sassafras? Very flavourful, some liquorice. Slightly salty and sweet. Reminds me of some sort of liquor. Takes some getting used to.

2.8 Muddy amber, no head. Aroma of fudge and ginger. Sweet and fruity with caramelly with notes of gingersnaps. Then there is this peculiar root beer flavour, but it isn’t overpowering. Medium bodied with low bitterness. Quite interesting, but mostly as a novelty.

2.9 Another unbalanced historical brew. Reminiscent of many root beers that you can buy at general stores throughout the South and the Midwest (i.e. Cracker Barrel). The sassafras flavor just falls flat--not crisp enough.

3.2 12 oz. bottle from BevMo, consumed fresh in 2006. Hazy rosy amber color with a creamy head taht leaves luxurious lacing. Smells like a really good root beer, spicy roots, wintergreen and vanilla are evident along with sweet clover and honey. Flavor is a bit intense compared to aroma, heavy with astringent bitter spices, wintergreen, molasses, herbal flavors and clove, sweet honey notes just prior to the finish leading to a slightly unpleasant astringent aftertaste. Medium body and moderate carbonation. Hmmm, this one was a mixed bag for me, loved the aroma, not as much the flavor.

2.8 Was hazy with sediment. Smells like licorice. Sweet wintergreen. Not bad, not great though.

2.6 Off notesfrom 10/06. Pours cloudy amber with large chunks of sediment floating around. Smell is just like a root. I completely do not like the taste. You get that root beer edge, but it is too sharp and too tangy on the end. Just too harsh overall I think. Flavors overpower the feel and it is defiitely not that drinkable I believe. The second of the four out of the box I can’t finish.

2.6 Name: 1790 Root Beer Brew Date: 10/24/2006 Mode: Bottle Source: Green’s, Atlanta opaque dark amber, thin beige head, nice lace, strong sweet sassafras aroma with a hint of minty wintergreen, weird complex mixture of flavors, nice sweet sassafras and licorice, minty wintergreen, spicy edge, touch of bitterness from the spices, very interesting Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 4/10; Palate: 5/10; Overall: 8/20 Rating: 2.6/5.0 Drinkability: 4/10 Score: **/4

2.1 12 fl oz bottle. Pours hazy orange/brown with little lacing head. Heavy spiced aroma. Ginger like note, very heavy flavour too, slight soapy. Liqourice element. I’m definitely not used to drink root beer and I don’t think I’ll ever learn to appreciate it.

0.9 À l’hormis de certains produits (très singuliers) de notre terroir, je n’avais encore jamais eu l’opportunité de goûter un produit aussi médiocre. Grand amateur de root beer, je dois avouer que j’étais plutôt réceptif et ouvert à l’idée de m’essayer sur cette bière brassée dans les plus belles traditions d’antan, à l’époque où l’Amérique était le berceau des fondamentalistes protestants à la recherche de la Nouvelle Terre Promise. Puisque ceux-ci travaillaient dur au labourage de la terre, une fois le soir venu, ils devaient se reposer en savourant les bienfaits d’une tranquille petite bière. Comme les « bières d’antan » sont à la mode et ce, depuis quelques années, la brasserie Boston Beer Company/Samuel Adams a donc décidé de s’y mettre. Honnêtement, l’entreprise est légitime et ma foi, fort intéressante (a priori). Cela dit, jusqu’à présent, sur les quatre bières proposées par l’entreprise, je n’en ai goûté que deux (dont celle dont il est question ici) et celles-ci étaient très quelconques. Hier soir, je me suis permis d’ouvrir cette « root beer », croyant donc à une belle expérience, un peu dans la veine de la bière de racinette brassée par DDC, l’année dernière, lors de leur 8è anniversaire. Bon, cela dit, mettons fin à cette parenthèse sans sigles et rentrons dans le vif du sujet. La première chose qui frappe, une fois la bouteille décapsulée et vidée dans le verre de dégustation (comme on la buvait, au 19è siècle), c’est le puissant parfum de salsepareille et de vanille qui, même s’il peut rapidement sembler confus, laisse présager à quelque chose d’agréable. Or, il ne prend pas beaucoup de temps avant que des arrières-odeurs de caoutchouc sur le grill, d’aspirine mouillée et de carton font leur entrée, de façon fantastiquement violente. Dès lors, j’étais un peu moins enthousiasme… néanmoins, peut-être s’agissait-il d’une caractéristique de cette unfiltered bière, me dis-je. À première vue, rien à mentionner sur la robe de cette bière, si ce n’est qu’un brun/ambré caractéristique des bières de racinette, telles qu’on les retrouve en épicerie (à ce sujet, rien ne remplace une bonne Stewarts Root Beer, si ce n’est un tout petit verre de Mug). Hélas, ma pulsion scopique dépêchée, j’ai eu l’idée de placer le verre sous les filtres lumineux de la lampe halogène pour mieux y apprécier les subtilités d’apparence. Très mauvaise idée! Comme mon père, avec qui je passai la soirée à déguster bières, blés d’inde et fromages, me le fit remarquer, la bière nous laissait voir ses gros défauts de vieillissement et de décrépitude : ce qui ressemblait à des grains de sable, une tonne de pellicules fraîches et des morceaux de papiers mouillés dansaient sous les milles feux, laissant croire qu’une forme de vie inconnue avait pris possession du liquide brassicole. Un peu embrouillé, mais toujours confiant, je me suis décidé à poser mes lèvres sur le verre, ouvrir légèrement ma bouche et attendre que la bière vienne paisiblement se poser sur ma langue, afin d’activer mes papilles gustatives. Instantanément regagnèrent en moi les souvenirs de Breughel, les Houblon Brothers et les pires expériences de Multi-Brasse (dont j’apprécie certains des efforts, de temps en temps… et surtout de par le passé!) : une bonne dose de crème à raser, de l’essence de vanille entremêlée à de l’écorce de bouleau humide, un vomi contaminé et de la poussière de ventilateur. Hmm… je n’aime pas vraiment ça… mais peut-être que je n’ai pas encore développé suffisamment mon goût ? Quelques gorgées supplémentaires ensuite, j’arrête, ayant l’impression que je vais restituer mes viscères et mes boyaux, peut-être pour mieux apprécier les subtilités du caillou contaminé. Globalement, une très mauvaise expérience, qui sera suivie, l’année prochaine, d’une Traditional Ginger Honey Ale, vieillie deux ans. En espérant qu’elle ne me tue pas.

2.3 (Bottle 35,5 cl) Courtesy of yespr. Very cloudy, murky, orangey golden with a creamy, yellowish head. Aroma of bubble gum and root beer spices. Medium body, sweet and salty with licorice notes and a distinct sarsaparilla spiciness. Somewhat astringent finish. 180807

2.4 12 oz bottle. Poured a reddish-orange color. Head was off white and reduced over a minute or so to a thin film. There was lots of debris floating around in it that took longer to settle. Spicy aroma of root beer, anise, and the ashes in my fireplace. Sweet on the tongue with flavor following the aroma. Certainly smoky with sassafras, caramel, and anise flavors. Interesting, but not a beer I’d do out of my way to have again.

3.0 Much better than the salesperson led me to believe. Light brown in appearance with an interesting sassafras flavor, especially without the sweetness in rootbeer.

2.6 I had this in the sampler pack. Was not too bad, but I would never buy a case of it. It was a beer that the colonist had to make do because of the lack of ingredients available at that time.

3.1 A hazy reddish brown ale with a thick collapsing light moka head, and little yeast floaties. Aroma is quite interesting, with notes of anis, licorice, terpentine and light alcohol. In mouth, a rather sweet coniferous brew, with loads of licorice, and those candy bottle caps I used to buy as a cap...more like a chinotto. Still, very interesting, but not something I would drink everyday.

2.8 Bottle sampled on 3/14/07: Pours a transparent copper orange with a thin, spotty-lacing off-white head. Has a very rooty wintergreen, anise, and licorice aroma. Body starts lightly sweet and very earthy with dandelion and wintergreen flavor with a drier finish. An interesting "rooty" brew, but I’m not that big of a fan.

2.7 Bottle. Pours a slightly hazy copper with a one finger off-white head that leaves decent lacing. Aroma of sassafras, wintergreen, licorice, and caramel. Taste is the same as aroma but with an unpleasant bitterness. Medium mouthfeel with a spicy finish. A very interesting brew but not one I could drink all the time.

2.9 Poured a lightly hazed golden color. The aroma was strong with root beer, spices, licorice, and smoke. The flavor was sweet to start with a spiced middle and tart malty finish. Medium bodied. It was pretty odd but I didn’t think too terrible. It actually started to grow on me. I just don’t know how much I can drink of it.

3.4 Pours a three finger off-white head that fades to a thin layer leaving some lace. Cloudy amber color. Light-medium carbonation and medium bodied. Strong root beer nose. Flavor is root beer and hops, some sweetness, unique, would make a good summer beer. $9.99 - 4-pak, 12oz bottle from Shaw’s Supermarket Concord, NH.

2.4 12oz bottle. tastes like ginger beer. unusual taste, but aromas were enticing. the problem with sam adams is that they produce beers that have wonderful aromas, but once you taste them, they just don’t carry the same appeal. this is an example of that. sassafras, ginger, jasmine, and black licorice in the aroma, but the taste was akin to root beer that had been spliced with jaeger, and then dipped in liquefied brown sugar. i’m glad that bbc is experimenting, this one just wasn’t a hit for me.

1.2 This bottled brew from a bottle shop poured a head of finely sized white colored bubbles that were fully diminished and left behind a hazy orangish light brown colored with fine particulate and a poor lacing. The strong root beer aroma was its best characteristic. The mouth feel was weakly tingly at the start and at the finish. The horrible potato sasafras flavor contained notes of ycuk yuck yuck and more yuck. A horrible one that I would never even consider buying again. A true drain poor!

2.9 bottle from UncleMattie! Nose smells like the old fashioned sassafras root beer my neighbors brewed and handbottled in the 1950s; you can smell the sassafras, wintergreen, and licorice; slightly hazy copper with a small beige head; Flavor shows quite a bit of wintergreen, sassafras, and some licorice; like the homemade stuff i had as a kid. Once in a while we would get an "infected" bottle that had fermented the sugar, maybe this is where I started liking dark beer!