Hard Root Beer (Mission Brewing)

I was quite excited when this little jewel landed in my in box last Friday. The category of hard root beer has been flooding my social media but remained out of the Richmond market thus far. I thought it had been out of our market, but it seems Sprecher has been in market for some time. This company has been making non alcoholic soda and released a hard root beer some time in 2014 I am guessing by the BA notes. This beer has been in market and is riding the coat tales of the Not Your Fathers Root beer for the past few weeks in Richmond. If you look at the history, packaging and price point you have something to be suspicious about. This offering maybe 5% ABV, but what sort of balance has been stuck between flavor and sweetness. The thing I have heard about the not your fathers is how uncanny it is to just regular old barq's or A&W beer of root. If this thing snow balls it is going to make for a very interesting next year in the business. I have already heard that the big boys like Sam Adams are working on their own recipe. 

So Mission Brewery exists in the heart of San Diego. In my opinion this is the biggest dick swinging town in the US. The brewery success in this part of California doesn't come cheap. Mission claims to have started in 1913, and has gone though some changes. Being close to the Padre baseball park, Mission answered the call to provide something different to patrons. This hard root beer smells dead on, it pours flat, and the flavor is really good. I could not taste the 7.5% ABV at all. The spice assaults the tongue and hides the alcohol great. It really is not beer. It is more like a wine cooler, and will possibly be the more manly answer for the sissies that don't like beer. I can see big mixology coming out of these dranks.