Birch Beer -- A Poll

[Hal Briston]

What say you?

[TriPolar]

You didn't include options about the vareties of Birch Beer. There's the dark stuff and the clear stuff, and some inbetweens.

[Ellen Cherry]

Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society. Bottoms up!

[silenus]

Not a fan. I'll try a new one if I see it, but I have yet to find one that I'll try again.

[Saltire]

I went for 'meh', but with an explanation. The only time I've had birch beer it was a homebrew experiment by some friends. They said they overdid the birch flavor.

In fact, they named the batch "Bite of the Backyard" because it tasted like you'd gone outside and just taken a big bite out of a tree.

[Hal Briston]

Originally Posted by TriPolar

You didn't include options about the vareties of Birch Beer. There's the dark stuff and the clear stuff, and some inbetweens.

Yeah, I was aware of that when I set it up, but I didn't want a 30-option poll either.

This is stemming from the camping trip we took last weekend. I asked my Indiana born-and-raised girlfriend if she'd like a birch beer, and was floored when she said she had no idea what I was talking about.

What I didn't realize was...

Birch beer is primarily sold in the northeast part of the United States. There are manufacturers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey who distribute mainly to the Mid-Atlantic states and New England, although some birch beer may be found outside these areas.

I thought the stuff was everywhere. Go figure. Poor, non-birch beer-having folks...

[kayaker]

I went with "meh". I must not be very discerning, as root beer, birch beer, and sarsaparilla are all pretty much the same thing to my tastes.

[Yorikke]

I haven't had any in probably 20 years, since I moved out of NJ. I always preferred it to root beer...

Joe

[Voyager]

Yum - but the only place I ever found this stuff was Boy Scot Camp in New York. No, the tasting room in the Coca Cola museum in Atlanta had some also.

[Death of Rats]

Meh. It is alright for a novilty to have when we visit my wife's family on the east coast, but it will never surplant a frosty mug of Root Beer.

[beachbetch]

Sweet, sweet nectar of the gods.

[Cartooniverse]

Love birch beer. Seems to have more of a hard bite than root beer. Just like Sasparilla Root Tea- that hard birch beer favor.

Damned high fructose corn syrup...messing up the purity !

[elfkin477]

Yuck. Like all other drinks with "beer" in the name, I am not a fan.

[Little Nemo]

Originally Posted by elfkin477

Yuck. Like all other drinks with "beer" in the name, I am not a fan.

I like root beer, birch beer, and ginger beer.

But not spruce beer. That shit's nasty.

[panache45]

I love it, along with root and ginger. Wish it weren't so hard to find.

[anthonyrootbeer]

i quite enjoy it myself. in fact i have a website where i review it alogn with root beer and sarsaparilla! Anthony's Root Beer Barrel
there are some gross ones out there but the good ones are indeed amazing.

-anthony

[Swords to Plowshares]

It's fine, but I'd just rather stick with a good root beer or ginger beer.

[Gyrate]

I need an option between "Meh" and "Yum". I like birch beer occasionally.

[pulykamell]

I've heard of it, but have never had it. Are there regions in the US where it's more likely to be found, so I can keep an eye out for it next time? I've never seen it around here.

[Labdad]

True story: Back in 1950 my father, who’d grown up in east Tennessee, was in the FBI, assigned to New Jersey. He was about 24 at the time. He and some other agents went to lunch at a café, apparently on duty. After food orders at the café were taken, the waitress asked what everyone would drink. Dad’s fellow agents all asked for “Birch Beer." Dad, never having heard of “birch beer” before, asked for Miller High Life, to collective shock of the other agents!

It's only through that story that I know of the existence of birch beer.

[Labdad]

True story: Back in 1950 my father, who’d grown up in east Tennessee, was in the FBI, assigned to New Jersey. He was about 24 at the time. He and some other agents went to lunch at a café, apparently on duty. After food orders at the café were taken, the waitress asked what everyone would drink. Dad’s fellow agents all asked for “Birch Beer. “Dad, never having heard of “birch beer” before, asked for Miller High Life, to collective shock of the other agents!

It's only through that story that I know of the existence of birch beer.

[TriPolar]

Originally Posted by pulykamell

I've heard of it, but have never had it. Are there regions in the US where it's more likely to be found, so I can keep an eye out for it next time? I've never seen it around here.

Pennsylvania is it's home. I first had in Maryland before age 10, available everywhere in Eastern PA, parts of Jersey and New York, and even here in RI, but not everywhere.

[foolsguinea]

It's all right.

[mbh]

I like it. I can be hard to find, but Walmart and Albertson's both carry it (sometimes). If you drink it in a glass, it makes a good conversation piece: people notice the deep red color, and wonder what on earth you are drinking. Around Halloween, it sparks a lot of vampire jokes.

[Maserschmidt]

There's a spring water company next town over here in New England that makes it seasonally...good stuff, and we all like it. It's not red, though.

[davidm]

I love me some Birch Beer.

My favorite brand is Pennsylvania Dutch Birch Beer.

http://www.daretogodutch.com/homepage.html

For you unfortunate deprived folks in less civilized parts of the country you can actually order some from the website.

The one thing about it that bugs me a little is that it claims "Made From An Old Pennsylvania Dutch Recipe", but the ingredients list is:

Carbonated Water
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Caramel Color
Salt
Natural and Artificial Flavor
Gum Acacia
Red #40

I just don't believe that's an old Pennsylvania dutch recipe.

That said, I love the stuff.

Wikipedia has an article on it including a photo of a working birch beer still.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birch_beer

[Hypno-Toad]

It's rare for me to find birch beer, so it's rarity is much of the reason I like it so. If it was common, I'd probably not enjoy it quite as much.

[LateComer]

When I travel and am looking for fast food I will always stop at a Roy Rogers if I see one as it's the only fast food place I know that sells birch beer.

This is topical for me - Just this past Saturday I was driving up to Smicksburg, a local Amish community, and stopped at a country store that sold Kutztown brand pop. I bought a birch beer and a root beer. The birch beer I thought was okay but I really liked the root beer. It looks like from their website that they carry saspirilla; I'd have bought some if they'd have had it.

[Antigen]

The only beer I like is actual beer. Can't stand the taste of root beer, birch beer, etc. My husband absolutely loves it and gets almost giddy if he sees it somewhere, but I just don't see the appeal. It tastes like you're licking a tree.

[TBG]

Only place I've ever even heard of this birched beer you speak of is on bulletin board services like this one.

[Mama Zappa]

It's been a few decades since I had any. I'm not a huge root-beer fan and I seem to recall some similarities. So I voted "meh".

[Uncle Brother Walker]

My order of preference:

Root Beer (We have an A&W up the road)
Birch Beer (and yes, it is red)
Ginger Beer.

Actual beer is nowhere on this list.

[Zelski]

Originally Posted by pulykamell

I've heard of it, but have never had it. Are there regions in the US where it's more likely to be found, so I can keep an eye out for it next time? I've never seen it around here.

I can get Boylan's Creamy Red Birch Beer at the Treasure Island near my apartment. They carry a selection of Boylan's but I don't seem to recall the non-creamy non-red Boylan's Birch Beer there.

I was just on a trip to Seattle and my friend pointed me to a local store called The Root Beer Store. I tried plenty of beverages that were new to me and the two best were Gale's Root Beer and Myers Avenue Red Root Beer, bot of which are bottled in Illinois but I can't find it them here (I live in Chicago). The third best among my new sampling was Olde Brooklyn Birch Beer.

[Scubaqueen]

i lived in nj until i was 17 - and i don't ever remember hearing the name before. i'm assuming by the upthread birch beer tastes like root beer?

[Zelski]

It is similar to root beer but (in theory) it uses an oil extracted from birch bark while root beer uses (in theory) an extract from the roots of the sassafras tree.

Oil of birch is chemically very similar to oil of wintergreen, so imagine root beer with some wintergreen-like flavors.

[Chronos]

I like it, but that's at least partly because its rarity makes it a novelty. If it were regularly available, I don't know if I'd drink it any more than root beer.