Feb 052025
 

The third (and last) brewery from my Anchorage trip. I was amazed that there was so many house root beers. The residents said it had to do with them all wanting to have something family friendly. I don’t know if every brewery up there makes root beer, but three out of three that I investigated did, so either I’m very lucky or it’s a pretty high percentage. Either way, this last place also makes several other soda flavors including Spruce Tips, which seemed really unique but I don’t review all sodas, just root beers. They brought it out in frosty mugs which is bonus, not for any review scoring, but just for the experience in general.

The Body hits you with a fruity sarsaparilla flavor that really isn’t my favorite at all. The more you drink, the more it matures to an aged flavor from fruity, so it does grow on you. The Bite is spicy and complex, prickly and fizzy, but still finishes smooth. There is no Head. None at all. It is sad. The Aftertaste is creamy, soothing vanilla, which is quite a nice touch to end on.

This is the worst of the three this week. It starts bad but does get drinkable as you go on. Barely drinkable, aged sarsparilla is decent, but the fruity is a no go. It’s good enough, over the course of the mug, to squeeze in a drinkable rating, but barely. The food is delicous so definitely worth a visit.

Three kegs

A crab meat grilled cheese sandwich with chowder for dipping. Super delicious.

Jan 012025
 
Seal of Approval

So I was in Anchorage back in November for the Northwest Public Power Association Conference in Anchorage, Alaska. I was quite surprised how many breweries that made their own root beer there were. I saw from Google Maps that there were two within walking distance from my hotel. The first, Glacier Brewhouse, I realized, after I drank some, that I’d reviewed before when a tap room in Seattle had it. But that’s not this, in fact, this wasn’t even on that list of two, but people in the conference told me about Moose’s Tooth Pub and Pizzeria, supposedly the best pizza in Anchorage which also makes their own root beer. They also had a pizza that has reindeer sausage on it which made me even more want to go, so we made that our dinner the first night of the conference. The place was absolutely packed but thankfully we only had to wait for 15 minutes or so to get seated.

The Body is sweet and rich with a classic flavor profile that’s just a little darker and more herbal. The herbal bit detracts a little. There’s a bit of a spicy Bite but it is all in all, nice and smooth. The Head is medium and foamy when you ask for it that way. The Aftertaste is a delicious sweet creamy vanilla that washes away any thoughts but how wonderful it is.

I’ll say, the first glass they brought did not have a good head and I had to ask them again if they could not make sure it was very tall and foamy and they brought back what was pictured. This brew isn’t perfect, but it’s really good and that wonderful Aftertaste really brings it home for the Seal. The pizza was amazing as well. My coworkers and I ordered 3 mediums and ate all but two slices, it was that good. If you are in Anchorage, Moose’s Tooth is a must!

4 kegs

My coworkers and I with our Thai Chicken, Call of the Wild, and Santa’s Little Helper Pizzas.

Dec 042024
 

My 500th root beer! I can’t believe that the journey I started in 1998 would lead me to so many amazing brews and now here I am with 500 done. I tried to make this a special review, because, I didn’t want just any old random bottle of root beer in my fridge (which I’ve been sitting on for 2 months now). While this isn’t some storied, legendary root beer I’ve forever been questing for, I did review it on election night on November 5th, which is pretty epic one way or another. I was traveling and in Golden Colorado and was looking for something local and found the Old 121 Brewhouse which makes their own root beer and one other flavor of soda. That one was coconut cream soda. It’s also a woman owned brewery so, appropriate because there was a woman on the ballot? I’m not getting any more political than that. I don’t endorse candidates unless they have public pro root beer policies like, um … Hank’s is the best root beer or there needs to be a White House Root Beer Sommelier or root beer subsidies or something like that, which doesn’t happen, so yeah. Anyways, it was an epic night for an epic 500th review.

The Body is sweet with sassafras and hints of wintergreen and vanilla. It’s got a sort of darker take on the classic flavor profile. The Bite is smooth but a little prickly. There isn’t a lot of spice. The Head is nice medium height and solidly foamy, which is rather rare for breweries lately. The Aftertaste is slightly bitter from wintergreen that finishes with tinges of vanilla.

This is decent. It’s a tasty one that doesn’t really stand out much but isn’t bad at all. It’s a little better than average the sort of root beer everyone will enjoy. It’d go well with food but they don’t really do meals there, just some snacks. I also tried their coconut cream soda because, why not, and that was also tasty. So, ultimately fun, but nothing crazy mind blowing, like maybe also the election, no matter what happens there’s always another one in another four years, just like there’s always another root beer for me to review.

Three and a half kegs

The Old 121 Brewhouse taps. Root Beer second from the left.
The Old 121 brewing vats. The root beer is made by the smallest one on the far right.

The Old 121 Brewhouse on a snowy election night.