Sugary New Beers Look to Claim Sweeter Palates

There’s a sweet, new trend brewing, and it’s threatening fans with potential dental work and serious buzz on the side. Audacity Brewing has been kegging up a new beer called Evil Cream Soda. To be clear, the brew is actually a beer, but just one sip will confirm why it got the confusing moniker.

The suds are as sweet as any soda pumped out by Dublin Bottling Works, IBC or any other sugary drink provider. Yet at 4.5 percent ABV, there’s enough booze in Audacity’s concoction to knock you off your barstool — if you can stomach enough of the stuff to get yourself drunk. Other local beers likened to doughnuts, cakes and other sweets have a subtle sweetness on the finish, but this stuff is cloying from the start. It drinks like a scoop of ice cream.

Audacity isn’t the only brewery peddling ultra-sweet beers in the area. I recently stumbled on a bottle of Not Your Father’s Root Beer at Cosmos a few weeks ago. I saw the same product again at Knox Street Pub, leading me to predict that these sugary bottles will be featured in more bars around Dallas very soon. 

Not Your Father’s Root Beer is a deceptive ass-kicker brewed by Wisconsin-based Small Town Brewery. It drinks as smoothly as the frosty mugs you find at Dairyette, but it packs up to 10 percent ABV, depending on the release. The alcohol is completely masked by sweet, vanilla and spicy flavor, and I don’t think it will be long before you find this offered with a scoop of vanilla as a boozy dessert at local bars and restaurants.

While Evil Cream Soda is mostly available in Denton where Audacity is based, Not Your Father’s Root Beer is becoming more available in the Dallas area. A spokesperson for the company mentioned The Gingerman, Dallas Public House and Twilite Lounge as other bars carrying the product.

Is sugar the new hops? It seems like such an unlikely trend until you have a sip and get sucked into the childish appeal of it. I don’t know if I see these beers going mainstream because they’re so heavy — the idea of sitting around and tossing a number of these back is about as attractive as eating three packages of soft-baked, chocolate chip cookies. That said, I don’t find overly hopped beers attractive either, but the bitter, floral brews have found a wide audience. Either way I'd bet a six-pack or two of these beers become even more popular as the weather begins to cool and drinkers begin to look for winter warmers.