Coke and Pepsi are out; small batch, craft soda is in. While sales for mass-produced sodas are on a steady decline, people are turning to the more natural versions offered by smaller producers. And breweries are getting in on the action. Here are seven beer makers that also make tasty soda.
Oskar Blues
Longmont, Colorado
Soda Styles: Many
Oskar Blues makes an entire line of sodas under the brand B. Stiff and Sons. The brewery started with a root beer, but this spring expanded the brand with a ginger beer, cream ale, orange cream and black cherry. They even revamped their original root beer recipe, cutting 20% of the sugar. I got to try the B. Stiff and Sons Ginger Beer recently, and dug the extra spice I found inside the can.
Abita Brewing Company
Covington, Louisana
Soda Style: Root Beer, Cream Soda and a Hard Root Beer
Abita uses spring water, herbs, vanilla and yucca, which creates an extra foamy soda. They also use local cane sugar, because apparently, there’s tons of cane sugar in Louisiana. In addition to the root beer, Abita also makes a Vanilla Cream Soda that follows the same hand-crafted mold, but manages to be gluten free. You can even buy Bayou Bootlegger, a boozed up version of their root beer.
Sprecher Brewing
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Soda Style: So Many Styles
While Sprecher follows Wisconsin’s fine tradition of brewing beer, the brewery is also the king of craft soda, producing an uber popular root beer along with every other flavor you could imagine. They even do seasonal release sodas. Check out their summer Strawberry right now, and when fall rolls around, make a point to try their Red Apple.
Grand Teton Brewing
Victor, Idaho
Soda Style: Root Beer, Cream Soda, Mountain Berry and Black Cherry
Grand Teton has a solid amber (along with a slew of other styles) but they spend just as much time on their soda series, which ranges from root beer to black cherry. Check out the Mountain Berry, which is loaded with huckleberry, blueberry and blackberries along with spring water from the Tetons and cane sugar.
Republic Brewing Company
Republic, Washington
Soda Style: Root Beer, Cream Soda and a Bunch More
This small brewery in Republic, Washington makes a little bit of everything—about a dozen styles of beer, cider and a full lineup of sodas. Many of those sodas are a little out there. They do a standard root beer and vanilla cream soda, but also a Honey Cranberry, Lemon Drop Ginger Ale and a Grapefruit Agave that uses fresh squeezed grapefruit and agave nectar. You’re just going to have to make the trip to Republic, Washington to drink it.
Saint Arnold Brewing Company
Houston, Texas
Soda Style: Root Beer
Texas’ oldest craft brewery not only makes a solid Lawnmower Beer, they make a tasty root beer using Imperial Cane Sugar, vanilla and some other secret blend of herbs and spices they won’t tell anyone about. They recommend adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Red Hare
Marietta, Georgia
Soda Style: Root Beer
Georgia’s Red Hare Root Beer is kind of a big deal, pulling down a bronze at the latest US Open Beer Championship. Yep, there’s a root beer category. It’s spicy, a little bit herbal, and brewed with pure cane sugar the way all root beer should be. And now you can get this root beer in six pack cans.