GourmetRootBeer

Reverence Brewing Company HONEY PIE Root beer

Sep 212022

Round three with Reverence Brewing Company. Nate, the brewer, was originally from Minnesota, which means he grew up around fine craft root beer which inspired him as he made his different flavors. He also had too many taps. The location of their brewery was originally another, different brewery, that failed, so when he moved in, the equipment was there and they had too many taps to fill with just their beer, so he figured he needed to make a bunch of different root beers. Once again, capital thinking on his part. He makes his root beers a lot like I do, he has a base extract provided by a supplier, but then he adds different sugars and other extracts and spices to make the final products. He mixes them all in the same mixing tanks as the beer (picture below) and then kegs them and taps them up. Now this was the brew I was looking forward to the most, because you know how much I love honey in my root beer. They use wild Colorado honey.

The Body is sweet with a classic flavor profile accented by sarsaparilla and honey with a hint of creamy vanilla. I wish there were a little more vanilla but there’s a complexity to it if you drink slowly. The Bite is mild and smooth, yet present. The Head is decent, tall but fizzes down a little quicker than I’d like. The Aftertaste is a nice honey flavor that builds the more you drink so the honey flavor becomes more and more prominent, which is amazing.

Yum! I knew it would be good. It’s basically their EH + DUBS with honey added in place of some of the sugar, which is just what I love. This is my favorite one yet, and I’m pleased to give this brew my Seal of Approval.

**Reverence Brewing Company mixing tanks for the root beer (and regular beer)**

Fiz Oktoberfest Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Sep 072022

This is the second Oktoberfest root beer to come out of the collaboration of Roc City (Fiz) and The Soda Pop Bros, that is a limited addition root beer with chocolate as one of the ingredients. The base formula for both is the same, but mixed in different ratios with different levels of carbonation, which makes two similar yet distinct brews. As I mentioned before, the Fiz has more carbonation and about 20% more of the flavoring and sugar, making stronger, stickier, foamier brew as opposed to the Soda Pop Bros more light and refreshing root beer. Whichever one prefers is up to personal preference but I lean more to enjoy the stronger flavors so I was excited to try this. I also really like the label on this bottle, the yellow and the coat of arms makes it feel very Bavarian.

The Body is rich and sweet with an aged sarsaparilla core wrapped in a chocolately flavor that adds darkness and depth. There’s also a little vanilla to round it out. I like it a lot. The Bite is not strong but there is a bit of spice. I like the feel of it too. The Head is very tall and foamy as it should be. The Aftertaste is a nice chocolaty sarsaparilla.

This is good. This is what I like. A nice and sweet and full of yummy flavored brew. This only the second time I’ve chocolate in a root beer and I’m pleased that it worked so well. I hope they bring this back every October because I’d love to celebrate Okoberfest with a tall mug of this. See how it rates against other root beers.

Reverence Brewing Company 1840 Root Beer

Draft and Keg Root Beers No Responses »

Aug 172022

The second of four root beers from Reverence Brewing Company. I couldn’t wait to try more (plus I didn’t have a lot of time) so I went back that night after my welcome reception. So this was also the second root beer for the day. The head brewer, Nate, chose to make many different types of root beer because he realized that root beer has several distinct flavor profiles and he wanted to make sure that there would be variety for those different, discerning root beer lovers. Though he said he’d never really had any hard core root beer people before me come in save one father and son (I wonder if they read my blog). This root beer is their darker, herbal brew, the old fashioned time if you will. Thus the dated (pun intended) name. And if you’re wondering why 1840 when root beer didn’t hit the scene till 1876, is that this is styled after the sarsaparillas of old, that were drunk (drank? drunken? drinked?) before Europeans arrived. I am always weary of licorice brews as if done poorly they can be quite overpowering.

The Body is dark with sarsaparilla and licorice flavors. The licorice is on the lighter side so it doesn’t bother me much and it mixes well with the other flavors. The Bite is nice and strong with cinnamon and other spices. The Head is medium but is gone very quickly, sadly. The Aftertaste is spiced wintergreen and licorice that doesn’t linger and ends clean.

Nice! He didn’t overdo it with the licorice and the spices give a nice Bite. It is quite a different flavor profile from his classic, but it’s still good. Not the best and the Head is worse. I like the other better but this is still pretty good.

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