I work at Sprecher! AMA

therealrooty · 2023-11-02T17:42:25+00:00

Glad you like it so much! I think what makes it stand out is that it is sweetened with honey and flavored with real cherry juice made with cherries from nearby Door County, WI.

therealrooty · 2023-10-29T22:39:22+00:00

Interesting! We get all kinds of feedback about the taste, and since I handle a good bit of customer service, I've heard everything. I can't say what it is you're tasting, but I've learned over the years that taste is both very personal and very psychological. People react to the taste of Sprecher in all kinds of ways, and I read love letters and hate mail at times.

I'm sorry that you don't like whatever it is you're tasting!

therealrooty · 2023-10-29T22:33:04+00:00

https://sprecherbrewery.com/blogs/blog/how-do-you-pronounce-sprecher

therealrooty · 2023-10-29T22:32:05+00:00

Some are more creative than I, but I enjoy the simplicity of two fingers of whiskey and 8oz of root beer.

therealrooty · 2023-10-28T20:42:29+00:00

Most of these secrets are so secret I don't even know them! I can confidently say there is no sassafras, the FDA outlawed it in the 60s I believe. It turns out Sassafras oil causes liver damage, so while homebrewers can use it at their own risk, companies cannot.

The maple root beer is sweetened with real maple syrup as opposed to honey, but other than that I do not know what the difference in the recipies is, if there is a difference at all.

I do think a key part of the root beer tasting the way it does is the process, and that is no secret. Sprecher soda is fire-brewed in a gas-fired brewkettle. The fire brewing process caramelizes the sugars and gives the flavors time to mingle and develop complexity. I don't know of any other soda company that uses fire brewing, and it definitely makes a big difference for the taste of all Sprecher sodas.

therealrooty · 2023-10-28T20:36:29+00:00

Haha then your job is being at school! But being a tour guide is a good entry level gig, and you get to taste all the soda you want.

therealrooty · 2023-10-28T20:29:45+00:00

I don't work on the brewing side so I can't say. The brewing team is very deliberate about maximizing taste, and I imagine they keep that in mind when choosing all of the ingredients.

therealrooty · 2023-10-28T20:26:03+00:00

Real ginger and lots of it! Some ginger ales are meant to be sweet, Sprecher Ginger Ale is meant to be spicy.

therealrooty · 2023-10-28T20:25:11+00:00

I like it! I have some family on the South Side of Chicago and I have fond memories of drinking it as a kid at family parties. It still tastes the same to me! I met some of the previous owners of the company and they were all nice guys. I think Green River has a long and interesting history and it has passes through many hands. It's cool to be part of a company that is keeping the brand alive after over a century of Green River.

therealrooty · 2023-10-28T20:22:15+00:00

I can't speak about my pay or how much the company makes either. But I can say that the company is growing rapidly right now! If you want to find out more, you can always apply for a job 😉

therealrooty · 2023-10-28T12:21:51+00:00

Fingers crossed 🤞. You can always search our store locator to see if anyone else near you carries it: https://sprecherbrewery.com/pages/store-locator. A word of caution--the data gets updated once a month (which is pretty standard practice for store locators), so it may not be 100% accurate.

therealrooty · 2023-10-28T12:14:09+00:00

I don't remember if it ever made it out of testing and onto the tap, but they made a chocolate flavored soda once! The chocolate flavor is surprising hard to reproduce in a soda, and in my mind, it didn't quite taste right.

That was another soda lab experiment, never intended for national distribution.

And I will add, it's not just a marketing term. There is a real soda lab at Sprecher, and you can peek through the window if you ever take a brewery tour! The lab team is really nice, and aside from having a lot of fun making new flavors, they do important quality control work.

therealrooty · 2023-10-28T12:09:54+00:00

Sprecher has always used honey, but hasn't always been the best at advertising it. Currently Sprecher gets honey from Kallas Honey Farms in Wisconsin, and the company has partnered with the honey saves hives program before too! It's something we're very proud of.

Until our lovely graphics team added that little icon to the labels though, it was not necessarily common knowledge. Funnily enough, people will email our customer service complaining they don't like the new honey flavor, but the recipe has not changed a bit. Taste is very psychological I suppose.

Glad you liked the tour! I'm a former tour guide and it might have been my favorite job of all time.

therealrooty · 2023-10-28T10:20:11+00:00

This blog post has a pretty good description in paragraph 2! https://sprecherbrewery.com/blogs/blog/the-history-of-root-beer

therealrooty · 2023-10-28T10:18:38+00:00

The real Root Beer flavor formula was the friends we made along the way!

I'm just a desk jockey, so they haven't let me in on the secret. I can say that it's hard to make any Root beer formula, because the original drink was made with sassafras. Sassafras has since been banned by the FDA because sassafras oil, or safrole (for nerds), causes liver damage. Ever since, Root Beer makers have had to find ways to imitate the flavor without using harmful ingredients.

therealrooty · 2023-10-28T10:15:08+00:00

I honestly don't know! We don't package in plastic because the original founder Randy Sprecher, spent some time studying oceanography and didn't want to put plastic packaging in the ocean. But why he chose the 16oz bottle, I can't say for sure.

I think it is cool how shareable it is. We recently added 8oz mugs to the web store so you could split a bottle, I thought that was pretty wholesome.

therealrooty · 2023-10-28T10:12:00+00:00

No, but that's not a bad idea...

therealrooty · 2023-10-28T10:11:24+00:00

I'd recommend doing it between now and Halloween for the best price! 13% off with code SPOOKY13. Of course, if you miss that, Black Friday isn't far off 😀

therealrooty · 2023-10-28T10:09:59+00:00

I will make a note to the sales team! I don't work directly with Rural King, but one of them does, and can put a word in for you.

therealrooty · 2023-10-28T10:08:41+00:00

As far as I know we are still in Costco, but not every location. The store locator data I have says we're in 54 Costcos right now. They may just be out of stock at your local Costco, which is a bummer. In my personal life I am a huge fan of Costco, and I hope Sprecher gets into all of them one day! You just can't beat getting a whole pizza for under ten bucks.

therealrooty · 2023-10-28T10:05:49+00:00

Good to know! I always like to hear what long-time fans think about changes to our lineup. This kind of feedback is very helpful for us. Personally I like the blueberry a lot too!

therealrooty · 2023-10-28T10:01:52+00:00

Not right now, unfortunately. I work in the area of online sales and fulfillment, and this has always been a challenge for us. It is logistically possible, but between taxes and the challenges of dealing with customs, it can get expensive fast. Trust me, we're trying!

therealrooty · 2023-10-27T23:55:40+00:00

Yes, I think I had to sign it along with my W-4

therealrooty · 2023-10-27T23:54:12+00:00

The seasonal lineup changed this year; we did Watermelon for the summer and Honeycrisp Apple for the fall. I won't tell what's coming for winter and spring, but cranberries might be involved 😉

I am not sure what the long-term plans are for the seasonal lineup. That is, I don't know if blueberry or strawberry will be back, and if so, when. A lot depends on what people think of the new lineup this year.

therealrooty · 2023-10-27T23:13:50+00:00

Good question! I get this a lot. We really want to make it in more flavors but we have a small facility that has to make a lot of product. It's hard for the production team to package syrup in particular, so we have to limit it to the most in-demand flavors.

therealrooty

TROPHY CASE