Root beer
Berghoff Root Beer
Berghoff (Berghoff Brewing / Joseph Huber Brewing) · Old-fashioned / draft-style root beer
Monroe, Wisconsin, USA
Berghoff is a bold, old-fashioned root beer that leans toward the birch-beer end of the family rather than the creamy vanilla school its label suggests. Wintergreen and birch lead the way, backed by sassafras, a thread of anise-licorice, and a warm cinnamon-clove spice, finishing on caramel and a late wisp of vanilla over a drier, more brassy body than its "vanilla-like" billing implies. Cane sugar keeps the sweetness moderate and the carbonation is lively but restrained, making it a natural for floats. A faint, hard-to-place off-note dogs the finish for some tasters, and the drink polarizes: reviewers run the gamut from delighted to put off by its assertive, herbal character.
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The maker
Berghoff root beer descends from the Berghoff brewing family's 'Bergo' soft drinks of the Prohibition era and has been part of the Berghoff beverage lineup since the 1930s. From 1960 it was produced by the historic Joseph Huber Brewing Company of Monroe, Wisconsin; that brewery was acquired by the Minhas family in 2006 and rebranded as Minhas Craft Brewery, which now bottles the Berghoff root beer. It is made with pure cane sugar and marketed as all-natural and gluten-free, with wintergreen, anise, sassafras, birch, and vanilla notes.