This was a find by my good friend and avid root beer collector Vince. He found it on a road trip somewhere in the south. I’d never even heard about it before. It’s made by Diamond Bear Brewing Company from Little Rock Arkansans. So this brew is the Big Rock of Little Rock? I approve of that joke. There’s also an image of a big rock on the label, though I have no idea if that’s a real place. It probably is. Maybe. I like the color scheme of the rest of the label too, all blue and white and whatnot. The brewery itself is pretty new, only coming on the scene in 2000. This root beer is kept pretty hush-hush as the only reference to it is the root beer float dessert on the alehouse menu. And yet they bottle it so I’m not sure what their marketing plan is with this. Maybe it’s to make the most amazing root beer in the world and have only the coolest people know about it. We’ll see.
The Body is sweet with a medium strength. There’s a sarsaparilla flavor with a little vanilla. It’s got a zippy little Bite to it. The Head is tall but lacks staying power. The Aftertaste is more vanilla sarsaparilla.
This kind of reminds me of Barq’s, but better. That makes sense it coming from the South and all. It’s pretty solid but nothing exceptional or fancy. Just a straight up root beer with frills. See how it rates against other root beers.