DISTILLERY ROOT BEER ~ MILL STREET BREWERY

I have to admit, Root beer is a guilty pleasure. I am long since a teenager, but still love a cold root beer on a hot day. This was my first foray into hard root beers. I know, I know, this is not really a beer, but a hard soda, but I am going to review it anyway. It is made by Mill Street Brewery who has combined their own non-alcoholic Root Beer (which they have been making for quite a while) with Vanilla Porter Bierschnaps, which is also made at their brewery in Toronto. The ingredient list looks far more like a commercial pop than a ‘naturally brewed’ distillery drink. Sampled from a bottle the beer poured a clear, medium dark brown with lots of snap and crackle from the carbonation. It smelled much like root beer, with a lot of vanilla, sassafras, cola, licorice and spice. It tasted like….root beer…but a very sweet root beer with vanilla and licorice, and subtler woody notes. I did not get much of an alcohol taste at all. Overall way too sweet for me, I would have liked a pricklier carbonation (after initial opening carbonation was soft), less sweetness and more of a bite. Glad I tried it, but won’t be returning to it any time soon,

5.2% from Toronto, Ontario