The hard root beer craze is in high gear.
If you don’t know what hard root beer is, ask a friend. Seriously, Not Your Father’s Root Beer is selling so fast they’re having trouble keeping it on the shelves, and more and more craft breweries are thinking about how they can cash in on the booming market.
One place I did find it on the shelves was at Norm’s Market in Lake Stevens. I also found Coney Island Brewing’s Hard Root Beer. So I bought a bottle of both and took them to a friend’s house to share.
Here’s our thoughts:
Tastes like root beer: Duh, I know. But it does taste pretty much like a craft root beer. Not Your Father’s reminded me of Henry Weinhard’s Root Beer. It has a strong flavor of vanilla and any alcohol taste is tough to detect. Coney Island has a more alcohol taste and takes the foot off the vanilla pedal, instead stressing more licorice and birch. We both felt if you didn’t tell someone, they’d have a hard time distinguishing these from a kid-friendly root beer.
Packs a punch: Both of these rang in at just under 6 percent ABV. That’s more than a lot of craft beer. Throw in the fact these don’t taste much like beer, and caution is recommended.
Not very complex: These hard root beers are getting high marks from tasters, but craft beer drinkers shouldn’t expect to be blown away. Like any root beer, these hard root beers get old fast. We shared the two and were done, moving on to a nice single-hop pale ale.
Aaron Swaney: 425-339-3430; aswaney@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @swaney_aaron79. Follow the Hops and Sips blog at www.heraldnet.com/hopsandsips.
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