History of Root Beer

There are early historical documents in which Shakespeare is noted to have drunk "small beers." This European brew, actually made from an early colonial American recipe, contained 2-12-percent alcohol, and was considered a light, social drink made from herbs, berries and bark.

During American Colonial times, root beer was introduced along with other beverages like Birch Beer, Sarsaparilla Beer, and Ginger Beer.

At the time of prohibition (1920-1933) root beer was so popular it was sometimes called the national temperance drink.

Meanwhile, Charles Hires, Philadelphia pharmacist, was on his honeymoon around the same time when he tasted one of superb family recipes, which belonged to the innkeeper’s wife at the New Jersey lodge where he had taken his bride.

After taking the recipe of herbs, berries and roots home to Philadelphia with him, he began selling a packaged dry mixture to the public made from many of the same ingredients as the original herbal tea. Well received, Hires soon developed a liquid concentrate blended together from more than 25 herbs, berries and roots.

A devout Quaker and teetotaler, Hires decided to name his new powder root tea, rather than root beer. This due to it was made of tea brewed from roots and herbs. Then Hires was persuaded to switch the name to ‘root beer’ to appeal larger market of hard-drinking Pennsylvania miners.

Hires’s root beer was nonalcoholic and was considered a health beverage. The public loved the new drink and as a result, Hires introduced commercial root beer to the public in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. In no time, it became a popular drink of its day.

In 1884, Hires began producing a liquid extract and a concentrate for use at soda fountain. The Hires family continued to manufacture root beer and in 1893 first sold and distributed root beer in bottle.

A is for Allen, W is for Wright. Roy Allen mixed up a batch so creamy root beer in 1919 after purchasing the formula from an Arizona pharmacist. Allen served it at his newly established root beer stand at 13 Pine Street Lodi, California.

After opening a second location in Sacramento, Allen made an able employee, Frank Wright, his business partner in 1922. Later A and W Root Beer was the most popular beverage served at their rapidly multiplying stands.
History of Root Beer