Bottled Root Beers – Page 70 – Eric's Gourmet Root Beer Blog

Cold Spring Premium Root Beer

May 132015

Cold Spring Premium Root Beer Bottle Another one which I received in trade from the great root beer collector Jon. It also seems that this has been discontinued so he gave me one of the world’s last. Truly I must sing his praises. Okay, here goes … ♫♪ Oh Jon, oh Jon, oh great and glorious Jooooooon! ♫♪ … Alright, now that’s over with, on to this Cold Spring. It’s a brewery, you know, with a storied past. There’s a spring there and they use the water to make beer. And root beer, or they did at least. It’s been around for 125+ years so they’ve probably made root beer several times in their “storied” history. Springs seem to been another reoccurring theme with breweries. It makes sense, you kind of need a source of water. They took a Spartan approach to their bottle. A simple circle with the name and the flavor. Some small text above. Who needs anything else? Well most other brands do, that’s who, but not Cold Spring they are so above that, or they were when they were making this at least.

The Body isn’t super sweet and has a nice creamy vanilla flavor to it but it’s light on the other root beer flavors. There’s also something slightly off in the flavors that I can’t place. There really isn’t a lot of Bite to this one, it’s nice and smooth. The Head is medium-tall and lasts a good long while. The Aftertaste is creamy vanilla.

This is pretty decent but not all there. It’s almost more cream soda than root beer, which I don’t mind terribly but I prefer it reversed. Still, I miss this already, even though we just met. Not in a sobbing and crying way, but still. See how it rates against other root beers.

Americana Cream Style Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

May 062015

Americana Cream Stlye Root Beer Bottle I found this in Seattle shortly after I began my eternal quest to review every gourmet root beer in the world. It was the first spring actually. I’d gone with some friends to a Mariners game and across the street from Safeco Field I found three different varieties in a mini-mart. Since the security was much less stringent, I actually took them into the game with me since I didn’t want to go back to the car. This brew is microcrafted, which I’ve never seen before. I’ve seen plenty of hand crafted and microbrewed, but never microcrafted. The label on this has got a lot going on, but it’s all very patriotic. It is Americana after all, so there’s got to be a bald eagle and The Liberty Bell. Then add some old fashioned squiggly lines that I’m sure have some sort of formal name but I don’t care to check and voilá, a truly American label, nay, an Americana label.

At first this was ok but the licorice in the Aftertaste became overpowering so I could barely choke it down. If you are someone who likes licorice in your root beer I am sure you will love this. I, however, despise it. The Body isn’t that good and the Head is lacking. Bite is too much with the licorice.

As you can tell, I don’t really like a strong licorice flavor in my root beer, and this is the antithesis of that. With a very strong licorice Aftertaste building, it soon masked everything else until it was just a black licorice stick, liquified and attacking me. Quite a shame, if it were better I’d drink it on President’s Day or Constitution Day or something like that but since it’s nasty, I’ll just drink something else. See how it rates against other root beers.

Stone Cellar Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Apr 292015

Stone Cellar Root Beer Bottle This stuff comes from the Stone Cellar Brewpub in Appleton, Wisconsin. Stone Cellar is the state’s oldest brewpub and is housed in a building built over 150 years ago as a brewery. There’s been some change in names over the years and fires and closures, but they are currently stronger than ever before and expanding as well. Their philosophy is on local sustainable and organic offerings to improve the community and the world or something like that. Their root beer bottle is pretty sweet, what with the stone arch and painted letters and whatnot. I always prefer a painted bottle over a label since the former will last longer in my root beer bottle collection.

The Body is extremely light. The only flavors other than sugar are the subtlest hints of ginger and maybe some sarsaparilla. There is also the faintest trace of fruity in the nearly flavorless drink. The Bite has some sharp carbonation burn but nothing else. The Head is tall and frothy and is most excellent. It’s a shining beacon in the otherwise dismal brew. The Aftertaste is merely a shadow of sugar and fruity that’s gone before you even realize it was there.

Huh. It’s not even like those herb tea root beers that are good but not root beer. This stuff is the color of sparkling apple cider and not only does it not taste like root beer; it doesn’t really taste like anything. I wonder who, as a child, grew up drinking something like this and thinking it was root beer. They say on the back of the bottle “Lighter Than The Rest But Still The Best!” They got the first part right for sure. See how it rates against other root beers.

Older Entries Newer Entries