This is the second Amish home brew type root beer I’ve ever heard of, and the first that allowed me to buy online. My wife asked if Amish are allowed to use the internet, and I think the answer is no, so I’m not sure how it wound up for sale online. Reading the about section on the website though seems to indicate that the owners aren’t Amish, but merely live among the Amish (and have internet somehow) so mystery solved. Though I hadn’t heard anything good about it, I knew I needed to see for myself. I just needed to order it from Dutch Country Pantry and give it a try, or so I thought. Ten days after I ordered, it arrived but the bottles had spilled everywhere. I sent them an email and pictures and they apologized profusely and vowed to send another shipment. They asked what was the cause and I said that I thought it was because the bottles were bundled in the same plastic bag and laid on their side. Well, at least I’d get my root beer with the next shipment I thought. Alas no. This time, the individually bagged and upright root beers were still half spilled everywhere. They did include a small sample of wonderful Amish maple nut fudge in there though which is amazing beyond belief. Since this is a yeast carbonated brew, I figured the problem was that it was taking too long in transit, over carbonating and pressurizing, and then breaking the seal and spilling. I emailed them and told them thus. I told them that I didn’t need another shipment since they’d spent too much money on me already and they did give me the fudge, but that they should make sure to always send the root beer two day FedEx to make sure no one else suffers the same fate as I. They replied that customer satisfaction is their top priority and sent another shipment, overnight delivery no less! And this time, it was intact! Yay! At last the root beer was mine for the drinking.
The Body has a light generic root beer flavor and a good amount of yeast. It is only mildly sweet and kind of sour as well. The yeast is pretty dominant but not overpowering. There really isn’t any Bite at all, no spice and hardly any carbonation fizz (despite the yeast). There is no Head at all. That’s really surprising. The Aftertaste is a light sour yeasty flavor.
Hmm, this root beer has a lot wrong with it and not a lot right. Of the two bottles the first was much yeastier than the second, but the second was still rather weak and yeasty. I’ve heard that this has an amazing Head so it is probably a function of the carbonation (shipping) time. The longer it is out of the refrigerator, the more carbonation and the more yeast, and the less time in the fridge, the less carbonation but less yeasty flavor. It sadly doesn’t seem to present a winning situation either way you look at it. I had kept the second failed shipment in the fridge and tried those. Eww, so much yeast it a few sips was all I could handle. Though the Head was much nicer. Therefore, my theory was confirmed. So how to rate it. It doesn’t make me gag, but I do shudder if I take a big gulp and swallowing is always a conscious decision. So, assuming a two day transit time and carbonation/Head like I had, I give it 1 Keg. I could see it possibly as high as a 1 1/2 for optimal carbonation and yeast and as low as a 0 for four or more days in transit, but I’ll stick to my rating for the two bottles I officially had, assuming that they’ll always send it two day shipping from now on. See how it rates against other root beers.
When I first learned about this one I was in the process of seeking out new brews to try so I immediately sent them an email to see if they would mail order it. They said they couldn’t since they didn’t bottle much and it had to be refrigerated at all times. This was rather saddening but I figured if I ever go to Brooklyn, I’d look them up. A few days later I received a root beer shipment (part of a trade) from the one and only 
Way back in the fall of 2003, I had just arrived at BYU to restart my undergrad career. I’d been off of my mission for a mere six months but I’d jumped back into root beer reviewing with a tenacity after two years of being completely dry (there was no gourmet root beer in Madagascar nor South Africa that I could find). On one of my first days in Provo, I went with my sister to the BYU creamery to get some of their amazing “squeaky cheese”, which is just a high quality cheddar cheese curd but it squeaks when you eat it so everyone calls it squeaky cheese. While I was there I of course checked for root beer and found a six-pack of Barrel Brothers. Excellent, more root beer for me. The label is interesting to be sure, two guys without necks wearing barrels with mugs of root beer. It’s like they’re depression era homeless people who found some root beer or something. And they also don’t have necks. That really bothers me. The other interesting tidbit on the label is that it is “brewed with both vitamin C & calcium” I’m not sure if they were setting out to make a root beer that sub for your morning glass of OJ or if their formula just happened to call for those ingredients and the marketing department (the thinner of the neck-less brothers perhaps?) decided they could pitch that as a benefit or something.