Birch beer

Hank's Premium Birch Beer

Hank's Gourmet Beverages · Red birch beer (Northeast/Philadelphia-style, wintergreen-forward)

Southampton, Pennsylvania, USA

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A classic red birch beer in the Philadelphia/Northeast tradition, leaning hard into a bright, almost peppermint-like wintergreen lift that hits before the sweetness settles in. Cane sugar gives it a hearty, full-bodied pour with a faintly creamy, vanilla-tinged tail, more rounded than the typical bone-dry birch. The wintergreen is assertive enough to dominate the rest of the profile, so the herbal and root depth stays in the background rather than building toward a complex finish. A faint muddiness on the aftertaste keeps it just short of pristine, but it remains one of the more reliably enjoyable bottled red birch beers in distribution.

Taste profile
Flavor fingerprint for Hank's Premium Birch BeerSweetness 4 of 5, Carbonation 3 of 5, Body 4 of 5, Creaminess 2 of 5, Bitterness 1 of 5, Spice-heat 1 of 5, Aroma intensity 4 of 5, Finish 3 of 5SweetnessCarbonationBodyCreaminessBitternessSpice-heatAromaFinish

Objective sensory intensities (how it tastes) — not a liking score.

Flavor wheel
Flavor wheel for Hank's Premium Birch BeerHighlighted: Wintergreen & birch, Spice (cinnamon, clove, nutmeg), Vanilla & cream, Caramel & molasses, Off-notes (artificial, metallic, flat, soapy).RootWintergreenAniseSpiceVanillaCaramelWoodyOff-notes

Our editorial notes.

Scores

Our score
39/50
What drinkers think
7/9
early estimate
Critics vs. the crowd
+3
A critics’ pick

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The maker

Hank's Gourmet Beverages is a family-owned Pennsylvania craft soda maker based in Southampton, just outside Philadelphia, that grew out of Frank "Hank" Salvatore's 1958 beer distributorship. The company is best known for its cane-sugar root beer drawn from a heritage recipe, with a Northeast-style birch beer rounding out its lineup. Its birch beer is labeled as a Philadelphia recipe and bottled in glass.

Ingredients & nutrition

Filtered carbonated water, Cane sugar, Caramel color, Sodium benzoate (preservative), Natural & artificial flavors, Yucca extracts, Gum acacia, Citric acid, Red #40.

12 fl oz · 150 cal · 39 g sugar(per serving, as labeled)