Bottled Root Beers – Page 45 – Eric's Gourmet Root Beer Blog

Homer Soda’s Maple Syrup Root Beer

Dec 282016

Homer Soda's Maple Syrup Root Beer Bottle 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.

Sprecher Honey Root Beer

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Dec 142016

Sprecher Honey Root Beer Bottle My 300th root beer review! For such a special moment I had to pick a special brew and this one is special indeed. Sprecher Honey Root Beer is a limited edition celebratory soda made in honor of Sprecher Brewing Company’s 30th year. They did a limited production run of only 3000 cases. So it was the natural pick for my 300th, to complete the trifecta of 3 times increasingly larger powers of 10. Also this brau is sweetened with only raw honey. Which is a bold move as too much honey can be dangerous. Yet, I love honey and I love Sprecher, so this should be good. I love the honey themed label, with the demonic raven thingy now clutching a hive. It also says “Craft Soda”. While I prefer to go with the label of gourmet root beer, craft soda/root beer is an appropriate label as well. I’ll write more about those distinctions another day, because the Sprecher is waiting.

The Body is light on standard root beer flavors and very heavy on the honey, being the only sweetener. It’s sort of a fruity raw honey which overpowers the rest of the flavors. The Bite is a light honey bite on the back of your throat. If you’ve ever eaten a spoonful of raw honey, you know what I mean. The carbonation is severely lacking, sadly, which makes the brew even heavier. The Head is pitiful, just pitiful, which is very disappointing. The Aftertaste is more raw honey, some fruity raw honey.

I do love me some honey, but this was too much honey and not enough of the other wonderful flavors that Sprecher has. The low carbonation really killed it for me as well, not only was there no Head, but it was too thick and syrupy without all of those bubbles in it. What a shame. At least it will not be missed after those 3000 cases are gone. See how rates against other root beers.

Whistler Classic Soda Root Beer

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Dec 072016

Whistler Classic Soda Root Beer Bottle One of my favorite Jethro Tull songs is The Whistler, and I always start humming it to myself when I think about this root beer. Just thought I’d throw that out there. Whistler Classic Soda is a different kind of company. They wanted to bring back the days of yesteryear when the local bottling plant would have returnable bottles you’d pay a deposit on. They think less carbonation and simpler ingredient and real sugar (is beet included?) is the way to go. I like the idea of returnable glass bottles, more environmental and stuff and other than weak carbonation the premise seems promising. They actually liked my Facebook page when they were just getting started and promised to send me some …and they never did. So I had to resort to trading with a fine fellow named Tony who is a loyal fan. The bottles are thicker glass than most which makes sense if they are reusable. It’s only 8 ounces unfortunately. Other than that, there’s nothing else to say about the plain bottle other than the cool spiral grips at the bottom.

It has a light and herbal sort of Body with a decent spiced Bite containing cinnamon. It isn’t as sweet as most brews. The Head is worse than a “two-second-Head”, though this is by design. The Aftertaste is anise and cinnamon.

Interesting and unique. But, it’s not all there for me. It needs more carbonation and a stronger flavor. It reminds me of Uncle Scott’s but less complex. I can see why they didn’t want to send me a sample. See how it rates against other root beers.

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