Nov 302016
 

Peace Tree Root Beer Bottle Check out this cool stubby bottle. I haven’t had many root beers in little stubby bottles like this. Maybe only twice before. I was very fortunate that a storied root beer collector and fan by the name of Vince lives close to the Peace Tree Brewery in Iowa and was willing to trade with me. In addition to it’s cool stubby little bottle, it’s got a pretty neat label. With lots of shades of brown and a picture of an old school jug that almost makes the root beer seem to come from such a jug. That’s probably what they were going for, and it works. It’s also handcrafted. Because aren’t they all. I’ll give a whole 1 keg bonus to the rating of the first brand to put “Machine Crafted” or “Foot Crafted” on their label. This is also made with beet sugar rather than cane.

It has a full and rich body with dark rooty flavor accented by a little bit of vanilla. It isn’t a creamy vanilla. The Bite is sort of a baking soda-ish, sour burn which I don’t enjoy at all. The Head is tall and sudsy with decent staying power. The Aftertaste is sassafras and vanilla.

This is pretty good, but the strange Bite kind of ruins it for me. I would love to like this more, since it’s always fun to give a seal of approval to a unique looking root beer, but alas, I cannot. It’s still worth drinking if you happen to be in the area. See how it rates against other root beers.

Three and a half kegs




Nov 232016
 

Penny Frosted Root Beer Bottle Another root beer I didn’t think I’d ever try. That was because when I learned about it and emailed the company inquiring, they said that they weren’t producing it in glass anymore. But then I guess the powers that be persuaded them otherwise (being shunned by me is very convincing I’d imagine) and they brought it back. Another reviewer, Root Beer Trackers got some and we worked out a nice trade. This is made by the Penny Cola Company, whose entire existence is the shunning of corn syrup sodas. They make several vintage flavors, though why they call this “Kick It Root Beer” is not explained. They have interesting quotes about Pennies and seem to love the little coins a lot. While I used to love Pennies, they’ve long outlived their usefulness and should be done away with, as they cost more to make then they are worth and they aren’t accepted anywhere. You can learn more about why we should get rid of our One Cent coins here. You can learn more about the flavor of this root beer by continuing to read.

The Body is very generic and a little fruity. The cane sugar is a nice touch though. The Bite is very mild; no real spice to speak of, but sufficient carbonation. The Head is medium but fizzes away very quickly. The Aftertaste is mostly fruity, not a super strong sour fruity, but fruity nonetheless. There’s even the slightest bit of vanilla in there.

This is pretty ‘meh’. I was on the fence as what to give it, but I guess, I would, probably, drink it again. It isn’t bad, it isn’t good, it just is. I will say that it justifies its existence far better than the coin with which it is frosted, so there’s that. See how it rates against other root beers.

Three kegs




Nov 022016
 

Brix Soda Co Root Beer BottleSeal of Approval Brix is a recently started soda company from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Founded by friends in the restaurant industry, it was their goal to present new craft flavors to serve their guests. This pleases me immensely as I’m so tired of going to restaurants and being given a drink menu that’s got dozens of wines, beers, and cocktails and then Coke or Pepsi products for anyone not desiring to imbibe. After their initial success with just soda fountains, they took to bottling. They currently have 13 fountain syrup flavors and 6 bottled flavors, including this root beer. Like most new craft soda companies these days, they have shunned HFCS and embraced the pure, unadulterated sucrose found in cane sugar. And speaking of sugar, the definition of Brix (symbol °Bx) is the percentage of sugar in an aqueous solution, 1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams of solution being 1 Brix. Their simple yet classy, modern label also has this helpful definition. So you can drink a soda and learn about scientific units at the same time.

The Body rich and full with a classic creamy vanilla root beer taste. There is a prominent caramelized sugar flavor that ties everything together wonderfully. The Bite is decent and it ends smooth, there could be a tad more spice. The Head is rather short, and thus the only glaring flaw, but it lasts and so it isn’t a fatal flaw. The Aftertaste is lovely caramel and vanilla.

Delicious! I could drink gallons of this and not get tired of it. Amazingly, despite a nice sweet flavor, it only has 33 grams of sugar compared to nearly 40 grams in the average bottled root beer. Which means that Brix has less Brix than other sodas … But it’s far better than most of them. See how it rates against other root beers.

4 kegs