05 Mar 2015 --- Mission Brewery is proud to announce the launch of its Hard Root Beer. The idea for Hard Root Beer, which is available in Mission Brewery’s tasting room and coming soon to retailers nationwide, originated before a baseball game.
Dan Selis, Mission Brewery’s Founder and CEO, explains that their tasting room’s location next to the Padres’ Petco Park leads to a higher volume of customers during baseball season, including people that aren’t traditional beer drinkers. Their requests for something “different” led to the creation of craft malt-cocktails, including Hard Root Beer. Mission Brewery’s Hard Root Beer was crafted in-house with the guidance of Head Brewer John Egan and Quentin Anderson, also known as Mission Brewery’s resident “Craft Cocktail-ologist.”
Mission Brewery, long known for brews like the Mission Blonde, Cortez Gold, and the Shipwrecked Double IPA, sees an opportunity to become just as popular for its craft malt-cocktails, especially so with the Hard Root Beer. “Our customers love to try new beverages, and we expect the Hard Root Beer to become wildly popular,” explained Selis, who originally came up with the idea of serving craft malt-cocktails in addition to Mission Brewery’s traditional brews. Other craft malt-cocktails available in the downtown tasting room include a Blueberry Paloma, Strawberry Fresca, Mango Orange slushy, and the Mission Mule, which may be the brewery’s next cocktail to move to the retailers.
Believed to be the first beverage of its kind on the west coast, six-packs are flying off the tasting room’s shelves as quickly as they’re stocked. Selis went on to say that he expects the Hard Root Beer to be widely available through national retailers in the near future.
