Last month I took my yearly road trip from Minneapolis to Idaho. I always make a point of stopping on someplace new along the way in order to spice it up. There’s also some friends that we like to visit along the way. Some of those live in the small town of Buhl. This time, out of curiosity, I checked to see if there were any breweries in this town of a little under 5,000. As luck would have it, there was exactly one, Magic Valley Brewing. I called them and they had root beer! So after lunch with our friends we dropped by to try their Rockhound Root Beer. The brewery has been there for only eight years. There’s a small brewpub that serves food as well. They try to source local and use fresh honey, ginger, and herbs in their different pops, ginger ale, cream soda, and root beer. They must not use any coloring because this root beer is blonde, something that usually gives me pause in a brewery root beer.
The Body is full and flavorful with that old fashioned profile that’s rich in wintergreen and licorice, but not too much licorice. There’s a little vanilla but not quite enough. It could be a little sweeter too, but it is quite complex and generally good. The Bite is all manner of spicy! I love that spice. The Head is abysmal, sadly. The Aftertaste is wintergreen and finishes a little bitter.
Interesting, a blonde brewery root beer that doesn’t taste all weird and herb tea-ish. It’s got good flavor for the most part, but it’s a little too bitter and has a terrible head. I didn’t try any of the food here, but this brew is good enough to drink with your meal. Plus the novelty of very small town root beer should not be ignored.
