Homer is a small farm town in Illinois. The soda company that bears its name is family owned and operated. They sell some of there own flavors and bottle other flavors. This root beer came about one day when the family went to the Champaign County Forest Preserve and learned how to make maple syrup. They were so excited they went home to make their own syrup, presumably from their own sugar maple trees. They liked their syrup so much that they wanted to see how it tasted in a root beer, and thus the Maple Syrup Root Beer was born. They even donate a portion of the sales of each bottle back to the CCFP as a thanks for the inspiration, which is always nice to see.
The Body is dominated by a rich maple flavor that’s accented by creamy vanilla all around a standard root beer flavored core. It’s nice to see they didn’t skimp on the root beer, just added a lot of maple syrup. The Bite is adequate but nothing is noteworthy of it. The brew itself isn’t overly smooth. The Head is medium-tall but fizzes down quicker than I prefer. The Aftertaste is luscious maple syrup and vanilla.
I love maple and vanilla. This is a good brew. It reminds me of that original Tommyknocker which had maple syrup as well. Though this isn’t as hearty, it’s definitely one I’m going to keep in stock. See how it rates against other root beers.