How do you like your sweet potato? Slathered with butter? Sprinkled with cinnamon? I like mine in beer. Oh, I do so love a baked sweet potato just as I’ve described above, too, but lately I’ve seen more and more beers on the market made with these divine tubers. No doubt the popularity of pumpkin beers is responsible, but so far I hadn’t really been able to taste much sweet potato in sweet potato beer. And then along came Fullsteam Carver Lager Brewed with Sweet Potatoes.

This lovely beer is the product of the Fullsteam Brewery of Durham, North Carolina. Fullsteam tells us directly on their website they focus on southern food and drink with local ingredients. What’s more local in the south than sweet potatoes? Fullsteam says the following about this beer on their website:

A crisp, refreshing lager brewed with two hundred pounds of North Carolina sweet potatoes per batch...and zero ounces of pie spice. Savory and earth. Deliciously smooth. Carver celebrates the subtle flavor of North Carolina’s most prized crop. Enjoy our tribute to a true Southern visionary, Dr. George Washington Carver. While he may be better known for his work with peanuts, Dr. Carver was also passionate about the sweet potato.

Fullsteam Carver Lager Brewed with Sweet Potatoes has an alcohol content of 5.3% by volume and I paid $11.99 for a 4-pack of 16-ounce cans.

Fullsteam Carver Lager Brewed with Sweet Potatoes pours to a hazy orange color with a medium spritzy head and a bready biscuit malt nose. I don’t get much sweet potato there which worried me, but taking a sip alleviated my fears. Sipping the beer I get a crisp pilsner maltiness underneath and then…. Sweet potato! Vegetal, stringy, meaty sweet potato really comes through. The beer is balanced and even a little tart in the finish.

Pilsner style lager may seem strange for a base beer here but its lightness allows the sweet potato flavor to come through; extra points for not using spices to crowd that flavor out. A very interesting beer indeed and one I really enjoyed.

And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.

*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.

(B)=Bottled

(D)=Draft

(G)=Growler



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