Everywhere we go in New Jersey I see Boylan Soda.  Is that made around here or something?

Yes, although the reason you probably notice it everywhere, the Suze, is that Boylan soda has an awesome looking retro-style label.



According to the company's website, Boylan is located in Moonachie, New Jersey, about an hour drive north from Red Bank.  They have previously been headquartered in Haledon and Clifton, also in New Jersey.  Their signature product is birch beer, developed over 100 years ago by William Boylan in Paterson, New Jersey.  If their birch beer is sold in Paterson today, it is probably as a 40-ounce.

And what exactly is birch beer? Why is it called beer? Is it made out of birch trees?

Close.  Birch beer is a soft drink distilled from the sap of birch trees.  There are distinct flavors of the beer, depending on the specific species of birch tree that the sap is drawn from.  The distillation process used to make birch beer (or root beer, or ginger ale) is similar to the process that beer is made from.  In fact, these kinds of soft drinks even have alcohol in them. Just not very much.  The length of distillation dictates the level of alcohol, and birch beers are less than one percent alcohol by volume (not even enough to get me drunk).