Anheuser-Busch Looks to Compete in the Hard Soda Market With Debut of Best Damn Root Beer

Anheuser-Busch has been busy. Besides buying out small breweries and acquiring SABMiller in the largest takeover in beer history, the company has been producing its own new products, specifically Best Damn Root Beer, another hard root beer for adults.  
 

The root beer is one of two products from AB-InBev’s new unit Best Damn Brewing. Best Damn Root Beer is aged on vanilla beans, and with an alcohol content of 5.5%, is just slightly stronger than the flagship Budweiser, at 5%. It’s also less potent, though not considerably, than Not Your Father’s Root Beer, another boozy root beer drink with 5.9% ABV. Pabst Brewing, makers of PBR, recently bought ought Small Town Brewing, the company behind Not Your Father’s.
 

Kathy Sattler, brand director for Best Damn Brewing, described Best Damn Root Beer to USA Today, saying, "It smells, it looks, and it tastes like the root beer flavor you know and love, but in an adult version." The beer will be available in both 12 oz bottles and on draught at bars.

Photo via Best Damn Brewing