Two Roots Enough Said

Two Roots Brewing Co began in San Diego as an offshoot of Cannabiniers – a self labelled ‘Cannabis Brand Management Company’. This particular brand was created in order to sell craft beer infused with cannabis, to tap into an emerging market for such beverages in California. In early 2019 Two Roots offered a number of non-alcoholic but THC-laced ‘near beers’, but of course these would only be able to be marketed locally, or in other states that had legalised cannabis use. Recognising that this would limit their potential sales massively, the company also came out with a range of unadulterated non-alcoholic beers for the rest of the world in autumn of the same year. And these proved to be a hit, with ‘Enough Said’ winning a Gold Medal at 2019’s Great American Beer Festival, and ‘Straight Drank’ winning a Bronze the year after.

Two Roots Brewing produce their beers to full strength in the standard way, and then use the vacuum distillation method to remove the alcohol in them. Using this method the beer is heated to a temperature between 43C and 48C which in a vacuum is high enough for alcohol to evaporate, without effecting the flavour compounds present in the drink. It’s a method used by a number of macro brewers but I’d say fairly few craft beer producers.

Enough Said is a Helles style of lager, a style which tends to have a fuller body than most light lagers, with more pronounced hop flavours. Whilst there have been attempts at producing alcohol-free versions of the style (Nirvana Brewery and Infinite Session have both given it a try), I’ve not yet found one that truly captures the malty, spicy German style. Will an American beer actually be the one to pull it off?

Pouring from the can we get a dark orange coloured liquid which is densely cloudy and murky – nothing like a typical pale Helles. The bone-white head is good and dense, sticking around and giving us some nice lacing to accompany our drink. On the nose we get light pilsner malt sweetness along with some fresh Hallertau hop spiciness, with maybe a hint of lemon citrus. It may not look the part, but it certainly smells the part.

Tasting the beer we get the pilsner malts up front, along with some herbal and spicy hoppy notes. Some lemon citrus freshness cuts through this somewhat, and balances the drink superbly. As foretold by the murky appearance of the beer, the body is thick and luxurious, with carbonation on the lower end, giving a fantastic, slightly viscous mouthfeel. The drink ends with a long bitter finish.

I think this may be the best tasting lager to have come from the States I’ve ever had. Refreshing and well balanced pilsner malts and Hallertau hops collide and produce some wonderful aromas and tastes. It may look somewhat like a hazy NEIPA but Two Roots Enough Said is a lager through and through, and I can see many of these disappearing as part of a session. Hopefully my joy in this beer isn’t all just a side-effect of some some stray THC from the company’s other products!

Buy Two Roots Enough Said

Two Roots beers can be hard to source over here in the UK, but there are some online suppliers that can hit you up with the good stuff (non-alcoholic beer that is!):

Nutritional Information (per 100ml, taken from the side of the can)
ABV	0.5%
Energy	22.5 kcal
Fat	0g
Carbohydrates	5g
Sugar	Not given
Protein	0g
Ingredients
Filtered Water, Malt, Hops, Yeast
Additional Information
Country of Production	United States of America
Brewer	Two Roots Brewing Co – https://www.tworootsbrewingco.com/
Gluten Free?	No
Vegan Friendly?	No