Root Beer Reviews – Page 38 – Eric’s Gourmet Root Beer Blog

Private Selection Creamy Ginger Root Beer

Oct 242018

Private Selection Creamy Ginger Root Beer Bottle Another store brand getting the gourmet fever and bottling their root beer in glass. This one’s from the Kroger stores and not to be content with just bottling their root beers properly, they wanted to add some flair. So, they made it a “Creamy Ginger” root beer. Props to that. I love flavored root beers. Ginger root beers are not as common as some of the others like butterscotch and vanilla, but a lot of root beers have ginger, so I had high hopes for this. Their label is a bit eclectic, with numerous fonts and sizes and serifs and sans and what not. There’s also the curious bit that reads “enhanced with a touch of creamy ginger flavor with a smooth finish” While this seems straight forward, the more I read it the more confused I become. Is it the creamy ginger flavor that has the smooth finish, the whole root beer, or is the smooth finish an additional enhancement? I may never know, though perhaps the drinking of the brew enlightens in that respect.

The Body is sour and a little fruity with a strong ginger flavor and an utter lack of any of the quintessential flavors that characterize a root beer. There is a strong Bite from all of the ginger. The Head is nice. It’s tall and foamy with little tiny bubbles. The Aftertaste is more sour ginger.

Um, this is not a root beer, this is a ginger beer, and not a particularly good one either. Maybe like that curious tagline, there’s some missing punctuation in their title, like maybe they meant to say Creamy Ginger Root, Beer and not Creamy Ginger, Root Beer as we’ve all interpreted it? Or maybe they just made a really bad root beer. I may never know their true intentions, but I know I’m not drinking this again. See how it rates against other root beers.

Whistler Classic Soda Butterscotch Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Oct 172018

So the fine folks at Whistler Classic Soda have been busy. They’ve built the wonderful Blue Sun Soda Shop, a veritable cathedral of craft soda. It’s just north of Minneapolis, which means I can now drop by. I’ve seen soda shops before, but none like this. Soda is first and everything else comes second. They’ve got over 1300 flavors of glass bottled sodas, over 100 root beers. Granted, I’ve had almost all those root beers, but they still get some new ones. Plus, they’ve got a classic arcade with a window looking into the bottling plant. With a super fast soda chiller (3 minutes) this is a place you can just spend the afternoon, drinking your favorite brews and slamming quarters in the pinball machines (which I did when I picked up this root beer). Whistler itself has even expanded their flavors to include this butterscotch root beer among other new ones. They got bigger bottles too. You’ll have to click the picture in this post to see the cap which denotes the flavor. Returnable bottles and identical labeling help keep the costs lower.

The Body has a nice full butterscotch flavor, but a conspicuous lack of anything else. There’s also something off under the surface, an alkaline flavor of sorts. This flavor continues into the Bite, which is mild other than this alkaline burn. The Head is short, but it lingers. The Aftertaste is a light, sweet, butterscotch that is eventually replaced with this baking soda type flavor.

Yeah, this is not the best. It isn’t terrible though. I just really don’t like it. Why can’t I like these guys’ soda. They’re 0/3 for drinkable ratings, but I love everything else about these guys. I’ll be a frequent visitor of their store, but I don’t see me buying more of their root beers. Maybe their next flavor will be a win? Here’s hoping. See how it rates against other root beers.

Sky Valley Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers 1 Response »

Oct 102018

Sky Valley Root Beer Bottle Seldom do you find an organic root beer. Even rarer is one that isn’t some diet abomination. A friend, The Root Beer Tracker found this and we set up a trade. After he mailed it I realized that I could have just bought it at Whole Foods and saved myself some shipping, oh well, I got to share some root beer love. The brew itself is made by Sky Valley Foods in Danville, VA. They have slightly lower than average sugar but are by no means a diet. The bottle is rather plain, with not much other than the bear and the name. Plus they mention it’s organic, twice. Three times if you count the USDA Organic seal. Five if you count the back of the label. Nine if you count the ingredients as well. And 10 if you count their website. Basically they want to make sure that anywhere you look you’ll see at least three mentions of organic, in case there was any doubt. I personally couldn’t care less about organic, but I do care about taste and Head and whatnot.

The Body is not very sweet. There’s vanilla and a decent core with some slight licorice notes, but then there is some strange aged, fruity, sour, flavor that surfaces. Perusing the ingredients shows apple cider vinegar, which fits the flavor perfectly. Why would they do that? There really is no Bite to speak of. None whatsoever, a big gaping hole is all there is. For the lack of Bite, it is only sort of smooth. The Head is decent, both with height and staying power. The Aftertaste is vanilla and apple cider vinegar. Again, why would they do that?

Seriously, they lost me with apple cider vinegar. I can’t think of anyone, who, drinking a root beer, thought to themselves, “you know what this needs, some apple cider vinegar” Yet that’s what they’ve made. It really just messes the whole thing up. It’d be okay without that, but with it, no good at all. Just stay clear of this one. See how it rates against other root beers.

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