Day 16: Down Home Roots Beer by William King

[Scott H]

Ingredients
1 lb Crystal CaraRed
6.6 lbs Munich LME
1 lb Golden Light DME

1 ounce Kent Goldings
1/2 tsp Irish Moss

Safale S-04 yeast
1/2 bottle of root beer extract before pitch

[klinger]

Whoa, this is a weird one. The pour looked exactly like root beer -- lots of fizzy carbonation, but no real head forming, just lots of fizz & bubbles on the surface. The aroma is overwhelmingly root beer. I can't smell anything else in there. The taste was a bit of a shock -- my brain was automatically expecting sweet root beer & got dry, fermented beer with a high chemical, spice bitter flavor at the finish. This was an experiment that, for me, didn't work. I think the idea is a reasonable one to try, but for me, I would have liked more beer character & less root beer character. I would like to see how this tastes with a 1/2 or 1/4 the root beer extract so it doesn't steal the show.

[brackelby]

I had a major gusher and didn't have a whole lot of the beer left to drink. I'd have to agree with the sentiments of the above comment; it wasn't quite beer and it wasn't quite root beer. Very interesting experiment though. I would also like to see what the root beer extract could add to a brew in a much lower quantity. Thanks!

[klinger]

Mine wasn't a gusher, though it was highly carbonated.

[spidermonk]

I guess its the season, but I'm amazed how many brewers went for "exotic" beers for this . Definitely been an interesting experiment for my drinking range. Klinger pretty much summed up my comments on this one. I'm not sure how the carbonation was even achieved, it was so much like a root beer head. Was it bottle carbonated?

[bryan]

Really dug the smell on this one, which my wife confirmed for me was a pretty solid root beer (soda) clone.

Light bite on the taste but mostly tasted like sweet malt. Maybe almost like a red ale to me.

Either way, it's an experiment worth trying! Haven't had an alcoholic root beer before, so I'm glad I did. Thanks for sharing!

[Chris Creech]

Very interesting and unique. A bit syrupy for me, with the sweetness. I'd be curious to see it with less of the root beer extract. But a very cool beer, nonetheless!

[kingingkunsan]

Finally have a chance to read this. I am the creator and brewer of this beer. First, I find it humorous that no one told me this was a contest. I had no idea I had to come up with a beer to satisfy all tastes. I love the beer, It was not an experiment, and all the ones i had left from the batch taste and pour perfect (to me). Until you are competing with the likes of Sam Adams, Budweiser, etc get off your high horse and leave the feedback to simply "I liked it" or "I did not care for it". Just my thoughts