Last week I was in Charlotte again on business. It was a rather unexpected business trip and as such there were no downtown hotels. We usually get a hotel in Uptown and walk to the meetings. Instead we rented a car. This got me thinking that maybe there was a brewery out further that had some root beer. I searched and the only clue I could find was a Yelp review of Heist Brewery mentioning they had a sarsaparilla root beer. The website was not helpful in confirming the existence of the brew, nor was their menu. Nevertheless, when the boss, who was driving said that he really needed a beer, I suggested we try Heist. When got there the restaurant had closed and only the taproom/bar was open. I asked if they had root beer and they said they did. I asked them the name and they said Sarsaparilla Root Beer. I asked if they had a pen and I grabbed a little paper take home menu. Thankfully my phone has a decent camera.
The Body is dark and minty with a prominent sarsaparilla flavor (who would have guessed). Despite this it still tastes more like a root beer. There’s a good spiced Bite, but the carbonation is very weak. It has a nice smooth mouth feel, though. The Head is pretty poor. It’s very short, though it lingers for a very long time. If only it were taller. The Aftertaste is sort of a creamy mint that lingers and has slightly bitter notes.
All in all it’s a pretty decent brew. There’s nothing wrong with it’s flavors but it needs a more Head and a little more carbonation fizz. It will still go great with food. It seems that they have some really great stuff on the menu, but since we had showed up after the kitchen closed, we couldn’t really try anything. What a shame.
Some of the brew vats.
Part 2 of my Eleven City Diner reviews. How many times have I found a restaurant with two different flavors of house root beer? ZERO! That’s how many. That’s how amazingly epic this place is. Additionally their food is very amazing, as my previous meal demonstrated, but in addition to classics, they also have some very original stuff as well. So I was back for lunch two days later with blonde brews on my mind. To be honest I’ve only heard of one other blonde root beer before so I had no idea what to expect.
I was in Chicago for the IEEE T&D Conference and Expo and needed to find some new root beer. Since Chicago probably has more brands of gourmet root beer coming out of it than any other city I can think of, I was sure there had to be at least something. I was looking for 1919 but I couldn’t seem to find anyplace close by. I asked the hotel concierge and he began to search after learning that Goose Island was something I could get bottled. He searched and called places and finally found Eleven City Diner, which is one of their recommended spots anyways and found that they had not one, but two house root beers, a classic and a blonde. I immediately set on foot to get my root beer. And it started to snow, and I was only wearing a very flimsy jacket because it had been sunny and warm in Seattle the day I left. Soon it was snowing and blowing and I still had 15 minutes to walk. But root beer is worth the pain. Eleven City Diner itself is an old Jewish Deli that specializes in cured meats – corned beef and pastrami. They barrel age their root beer extracts and use real cane sugar and Madagascar vanilla. They have an awesome root beer soda mixer/dispenser that’s ice cube chilled and dispenses both flavors. I decided to start with the classic.
