The week after Sacramento I had another root beer target. Northern Soda company is rather new, being open for only a year or so. They are committed to making sodas in small batches, with real sugar, and no preservatives, to make soda like it used to be made. Except they put it in cans, which I’d say isn’t properly retro, it should be bottled, and thus I hadn’t tried it. Fast forward to a few weeks ago, they opened their own craft soda tap room! Now that is something I can get behind. So I gave them a call to make sure they had some root beer on tap, and they said they did, plus they’d made a batch of butterscotch root beer which was also on tap. So it was settled, and I sallied forth with my family to try some brew. The tap room is like your standard non-soda tap room, with tables and free popcorn. They even have board games. The perfect place to relax with the family and get a root beer.
The Body is rich and full with minty vanilla accenting its core. While having a darker profile, it doesn’t have a strong licorice flavor, which is nice. The Bite is good and spicy yet finishes smooth. The Head is very tall and foamy, most excellent. The Aftertaste is a creamy wintergreen and vanilla.
Oh yum. I like this brew. It reminds me of Ozark and River City. It’s true quality that’s fun to drink while you play a nice game of chess. I have wondered the viability of the tap room, since it’s a mere 15 minutes from Blue Sun Soda shop, and how many craft soda shops northern Minneapolis can support, but with root beer this good, I think they’ll do just fine. It’s definitely worth a visit, just call ahead and make sure the root beer is on tap.
The outside of the Northern Soda Company Tap Room
The tap room bar. They plan to expand the number of taps in the future.
Free popcorn, like all Minnesota tap rooms. Also note the children’s coloring pictures on the wall.
Day two of the Duluth family adventure. We went walking around the shopping district on the lakefront, went to some parks, and went to the Aquarium. It’s a fun aquarium, all freshwater themed, let’s you pet sturgeon and stuff like that. But then it was root beer time. I’d heard Bent Paddle Brewery had some amazing root beer on tap. They do, it’s 1919. Quality stuff that, but I wanted something new!!! So I went to Lake Superior Brewing Company, because I knew they had Roller Root Beer. Lake Superior Brewery was founded in 1995. Before craft brewing was “cool”, according to them. After we got there, however, we were informed that they’d sold out the night before. What a disappointment. I despondently asked if he knew another brewery that had root beer. He responded that Ursa Minor Brewery, a short walk away, carried their root beer! Huzzah! So off to Ursa Minor for root beer.
This past weekend I took a little weekend excursion with the family to see Duluth, MN. There’s lots of cool things up in Duluth and they’d never seen a great lake before. But let’s be honest, there were breweries up there and I needed to try root beer. Friday night dinner destination was Fitger’s Brewhouse. Fitger’s Brewing Company was at one point the oldest continuous operating brewery in the state of Minnesota, having been founded in 1859. However, in 1972, it fell victim to post war consolidation, and shuttered its doors. In 1995, the historic brewery building was converted into a mall with various shops and restaurants and Fitger’s Brewhouse, a small brewpub. In addition to a line of their own beers, they also make Driftwood Root Beer.
