Review: Bud Light Seltzer Hard Soda
Bud Light Seltzer Hard Soda will be released early January 2022. I was able to get my hands on a 12 pack a little early. Hard Soda seems like something our parents drank when they were younger, but the truth is the Hard Soda product category only goes back to 2012 when Tim Kovac created Not Your Fathers Root Beer at his Small Town Brewery in Wauconda Illinois. This is not the first Anheuser Busch produced hard soda. A-B launched Best Damn Root Beer in 2015 and followed that up with Best Damn Cherry Cola, and Best Damn Cream Soda. At one time hard soda was a big deal. All of the big boys invested big bucks to develop and promote their hard soda brands. Miller-Coors with Henrys Hard Soda, and Boston Beer Company with their Coney Island brand. Seagrams and Mikes also made hard soda. So what is different this time around? For starters Best Damn Root Beer weighed in with 239 calories and 11 carbs. The new Bud Light Seltzer Hard Soda tips the scales with 100 calories and only 2 carbs. It is made from a cold fermented cane sugar alcohol base with natural flavors, malted rice, and sucralose. Sucralose is better know as Splenda. Bud Light Seltzer Hard Soda is sold in a 4 flavor 12 can variety pack. Read more 
Review: Not Your Fathers Mountain Ale
Not Your Fathers Mountain Ale as the name would suggest is a hard soda version of Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew is a slang term for moonshine and the original formula was developed as a mixer in the 1940’s. After several changes in ownership and recipes, the Tip Corporation of Marion Virginia created the current formula and re-launched the brand in 1961. PepsiCo acquired the brand in 1964 and today Mountain Dew is the fourth best selling carbonated soft drink in the USA. Only Coke, Pepsi, and Diet Coke sell more. Diet Mountain Dew is actually the ninth best selling carbonated soft drink. After creating the hard soda category with the launch of Not Your Fathers Root Beer in 2012, the Small Town Brewery has gone on to release several additional flavors including NYF Ginger Ale, and NYF Vanilla Cream Ale. Small Town Brewery is now part of the Pabst Brewing Company portfolio of beer brands. Not Your Fathers Mountain Ale is brewed as a beer with spices. Natural flavors and FD&C Yellow#5 color are added. Read more
Review: Fitz’s Hard Key Lime
Fitz’s Hard Key Lime is the second hard soda collaboration between Fitz’s and The O’Fallon Brewery. The first was Fitz’s Hard Root Beer. Fitz’s Root Beer first appeared in St. Louis at a local drive in restaurant in 1947. After disappearing for several years the brand was revived and is made according to the original recipe. Fitz’s currently produces over a dozen soda’s including Key Lime and Cardinal Cream, a red cream soda named for the local baseball team, and Kaldi’s Coffee Cola, a natural sugar cane cola blended with genuine Kaldi’s freshly brewed espresso roast coffee. The building that houses Fitz’s was build in 1928 for the West End Bank. The space became a Chinese Restaurant in the 1980’s. Fitz’s Key Lime is brewed as an ale at the O’Fallon Brewery with the same distinctive flavors of tart key limes and natural pure cane sugar found in Fitz’s Key Lime craft soda. The O’Fallon Brewery opened in 2000 and was sold in 2011. Since then they have built a new brewery and added their own bottling line. They currently craft over 30 year round and seasonal beers. Read more
Review: Coney Island Hard Lemon Lime Twist
Coney Island Hard Lemon Lime Twist is one of four hard soda flavors this division of Boston Beer Company currently produces. The other flavors include a Hard Root Beer, Cherry Cream Ale, and Orange Cream Ale. At one time they also made a hard Ginger Ale. I was sorry to see Ginger Ale is no longer featured on the Coney Island website. It scored very high and actually tasted like Ginger Ale, instead of Ginger Beer. Coney Island is also rolling out a new look with their line of hard soda. Gone is the old school bottle label design. In it’s place is the bright colorful label shown here. Hard Lemon Lime Twist is brewed as an ale with natural flavor and caramel color added. Read more
Review: Best Damn Cream Soda
Best Damn Cream Soda was just released. Cream Soda is the third hard soda flavor this division of Anheuser Busch has crafted. The other flavors include Root Beer, and Cherry Cola. The Best Damn line also includes Best Damn Apple Ale, and the soon to be launched Best Damn Sweet Tea. While cream soda may be thought of as a secondary soda flavor, the first published cream soda recipe dates back to 1852, 34 years before Coca Cola was first produced. This original recipe included egg whites. Maybe that’s why Coca Cola quickly became a dominant soda brand. Today, most cream soda’s are produced by brands more associated with root beer than cream soda, including IBC, A&W, Barq’s, Mug, and Dad’s. That said I am a fan of cream soda, and while I’m not claiming to be a Cream Soda Sommelier, I’ve tasted over a dozen cream soda brands, and I know the difference between an average and a great tasting one. Best Damn Cream Soda is brewed as an ale, and then aged on real vanilla beans with natural flavors and caramel color added. Read more
Review: Henrys Hard Grape Soda
Henrys Hard Grape Soda was just released. It is one of four hard soda flavors produced by the Blitz-Weinhard Brewing Company, a division of Miller-Coors. Henrys is named for Henry Weinhard, a German who immigrated to the US in 1856. In 1862 Henry purchase the Liberty Brewery in Portland Oregon. In 1864 he also acquired the City Brewery where he moved the entire brewing operation. This brewery was the oldest continuously operating brewery in the west until 1999 when after Miller Brewing Company acquiring the brewery, they closed it. Like many breweries, the Weinhart Blitz Brewery survived prohibition by producing premium soda. Today four of those soda’s are still produced. Henrys Hard Grape Soda is brewed as a malt beverage. Cane sugar, natural flavors and certified color is added. Read more
Review: Wild Sit Russ Alcoholic Citrus Soda
Wild Sit Russ Alcoholic Citrus Soda was recently released along with the previously reviewed Wild Alcoholic Rock & Rye Soda by the Wild Ginger Brewing Company. They join a lineup that already includes Wild Ginger Alcoholic Ginger Beer and Wild Root Alcoholic Root Beer. Wild Sit Russ is brewed as a premium malt beverage with natural flavors and color added before canning at 4.5% alcohol. Read more
Review: Wild Docta Alcoholic Rock & Rye
Wild Docta Alcoholic Rock & Rye Soda was released June 2016 along with Wild Citrus. Both are hard soda’s brewed by WG Brewing Company in Nashville Tennessee. They join a hard soda lineup that includes Wild Ginger Alcoholic Beer and Wild Root Alcoholic Root Beer. Faygo is the only brand I know of that makes a Rock N Rye Soda. With a name like Wild Docta I was expecting a hard Dr. Pepper flavored soda. WG Brewing founder Jamey Grosser learned the art of brewing from legendary moonshiner Popcorn Sutton. Read more
Review: Coney Island Hard Cherry Cream Ale
Coney Island Hard Cherry Cream Ale was just released. This is my 7th hard cherry soda review. Four of the seven have been hard cherry cola’s. Cherry Cream Ale is made with ale, natural flavors and caramel color by the Coney Island Brewing Company, an independently operated brewery owned by the Boston Beer Company. The Coney Island Brewery crafts several beers including Kettle Corn Cream Ale, Cotton Candy Kolsch, and a Watermelon Wheat, along with Coney Island Hard Ginger Ale, Root Beer, and Orange Cream Ale. Read more
Review: McAles Hard Ginger Ale
McAles Hard Ginger Ale is one of four hard soda flavors produced by McAles Brewing Company in Los Angeles California. It is contract brewed in Lacrosse Wisconsin at the old G. Heileman Brewery that operated from 1858 to 1996 and was most famous for producing Old Style Beer. Their other hard soda flavors include Root Beer, Orange N Cream, and Cola. McAles Hard Ginger Ale is described as a smooth brewed old fashioned hard ginger ale made from a secret family recipe. McHales Hard Ginger Ale is a flavored malt liquor brewed with a complex natural blend of ginger spice. Read more