Beer that Tastes Like Soda

Beer that tastes like soda? Is that even possible? Yes. Well. Kind of. The biggest problem with trying to find a beer that tastes like soda is that soda is incredibly sweet, and beer goes out of its way to not be sweet. But yes. A happy medium exists in multiple places. You just have to know where to look.

How Beer Is Made

As noted above, beer is made intentionally not sweet. It could actually be much sweeter with a few changes. Originally, beer was likely quite sweet.

Toasted grain would be cracked and boiled in water and then steeped to allow all the rich sugars in the grain to enter the water. The result would have been a thin oatmeal or malty meal, rich in flavor and sweet from the toasted grain. This slightly thick tea would be called wort.

Once the yeast enters the wort, it consumes those sugars as its energy source. As it continues consuming, it releases water, alcohol, carbon dioxide, and hundreds of other micronutrients into the wort. It also creates a foamy cap called a krausen over fermenting liquid which locks out oxygen. In the absence of oxygen, the yeast releases more alcohol than water, creating what we now know as beer.

The thing is, however, that most yeasts attracted to the sugars in grain would have been what we now call ale yeast. This strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae has a low tolerance for alcohol and would have begun to die off or go dormant at a certain point, leaving us with a slightly alcoholic, still slightly sweet beverage to enjoy.

Families for thousands of years survived largely on ales to get them through famines and tough winters. The drink was rich in nutrients and could even be warmed to enjoy on a cold winter’s day. The alcohol content probably hovered around 2% ABV.

Then, brewers got the idea to turn beer into an industry, and the pub proliferated across countries and the globe.

Inn keepers would offer food, beer, and rooms to weary travelers, and those travelers often wanted something a bit heartier than a 2% ABV ale.

Thus, brewers began experimenting to raise the alcohol levels, and as the alcohol levels increased, the sweetness became an afterthought. Soon, hops were added to further cut in on the sweetness, and now we have the product of all that experimentation. Beer is no longer sweet.

How Soda Is Made

Soda, in contrast, is made for exactly the opposite reasons: a sugary sweet fix.

What began as a nice treat to enjoy in a soda shop, a bit of syrup added to carbonated water, has become an entire aisle in the grocery store. Wide varieties of soda in all types of flavors, ingredients, and price points abound. But in the end, soda is simply flavored syrup added to carbonated water.

It was not always that way, of course.

Beer that Tastes Like Soda

Once, beer that tasted like soda was pretty common. Think of root beer, ginger ale, cream soda, and the like. You see, indigenous people have long worked with herbs, roots, and spices for medicinal purposes, and the end result could often be a “beer” that tasted like soda.

Root beer was made from sassafras or sarsaparilla roots and bark. The ingredients would be boiled in water to make a strong tea. Ingredients like cinnamon, vanilla, and mint could be added for flavor. A bit of sugar could be added to make the drink sweet.

Then, the tea would be allowed to ferment. Left sitting out for several days, virtually any sugary beverage will ferment, and the result is a beverage rich in micronutrients and probiotics that maintains all original health benefits of the herbs, spices, or roots.

The same process has been followed with ginger around the world. Boil the ginger in water, add a bit of sugar, and allow it to ferment.

Though neither beverage is technically beer, as they are not made with grain, we still call them “beer” and “ale.” And they do indeed taste like soda.

Today, you can find hard root beers and hard ginger ales in many markets and specialty shops.

You can also find beers that hint at those beloved flavors, like Goose Island’s Bourbon County Classic Cola Stout, which tastes like whiskey and coke. Some also argue that Bud Light tastes like an alcoholic cream soda. You can also experiment with various cream ales, where the hop and malt flavor are lighter, and the sweetness is allowed to linger.

In the end, you will be hard pressed to find a beer that tastes exactly like soda, as the two beverages are designed to be distinct, even opposites. But you can try various stouts, porters, and cream ales, as well as ciders and light lagers that certainly toy around with the idea of being a soda.

It’s all a matter of taste.

Cheers!

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Sources:

1. https://westchestermagazine.com/food/restaurants-food/the-fastest-selling-product-in-craft-beer-tastes-like-soda/
2. https://www.quora.com/What-are-beers-that-taste-like-cream-soda
3. https://www.insidehook.com/article/booze/goose-island-bourbon-county-cola

 
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