Jul 202022
 
Seal of Approval

I’m in Denver this week for the IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting . Last time I was here it was for EV things, but now I’m doing DERMS things but EVs will be controlled by DERMS so they’re kind of the same. Either way, you probably don’t care why I’m here, you want to know about the root beer. You’ve heard this story before, I go to a place for work, find a brewery and try their root beer. Well this time the brewery in question makes not one, not two, not even three, but four, yes four draft root beers. It’s a good thing I’m here for five days, because you know I gotta catch ’em all. Also I’m not going to tell you the full story of this place today, because I need to fill four posts worth. This first brew is their classic flavor, named after some Canadian favorites. The brew master actually lived in Duluth for awhile and if you remember some of my reviews from Duluth and read the name of their root beer like a Canadian, you’ll notice it’s quite the clever and familiar name.

The Body has a nice and creamy classic flavor with vanilla and a hint of aged sarsaparilla that come together nicely to give the delicious nostalgic flavor I love. The Bite is mild, but present, and it finishes nice and smooth. I’d like a little more spice but this has enough. The Head is medium and foams down medium quick, but once again, is good enough. The Aftertaste is slightly minty with vanilla and last just as long as it should.

Yum! It also has a very familiar flavor to some of its namesakes, but not exactly the same. I also think it’s better (at least than the Duluth stand) and really has nothing bad with it at all. It could use a little more Bite and Head, but still a solid brew I’m pleased to award my Seal of Approval. I can’t wait to try the rest of his brews, but you’ll have to wait some weeks to read about them all.

4 kegs

The Reverence Brewering Company root beer taps (and some others)

Sep 012021
 

A mug of A & Dubs Root Beer Back in June I took a day off to make another small three day Minnesota road trip. Plan was Duluth to Ely and back. Since I’d already been root beer hunting in Duluth, I wasn’t planning on finding anything. Yet, the day before I tried “root beer duluth”s into Google and found a drive in called A & Dubs. They seemed to have root beer, so I gave them a call and they said yes, they make there own. Well, I knew where I was headed for dinner then. The little drive in was originally an A&W some 60 years ago but they decided not to renew the franchise at some point and just strike out on their own, with their own root beer recipe. They changed the name to A & Dubs, which is about the least creative thing to name your former A&W since the drive in named “The Drive In”. It’s a proper drive in with car service and 3 booths inside (closed sadly for Covid) and two picnic tables outside and offers the standard drive-in fare of burgers, dogs, chicken baskets and the like. Their sign says “Home of the Power Platter” which is a burger root beer combo meal. So that’s what I got.

The Body is sweet with a classic root beer stand sassafras flavor and some creamy vanilla. It’s a little mild though not too weak. The Bite is spicy yet smooth in carbonation and finish. The Head is short but very foamy and lasts awhile. The Aftertaste is a very mild sassafras and vanilla.

This is pretty good root beer. Stronger than the last drive in I went to but still a little too mild to get the Seal. Their Power Burger was much smaller than I expected with a name like that but was tasty enough. I’ve had better, but I go to a lot of these types of places. Over all I’d say there’s nothing particularly special or unique about this place compared to similar root beer stands, yet, it’s the only one of its kind in Duluth, so I can see why it’s still going strong. The waitresses were very friendly and gave good service. It’s still family owned too, so it’s worth dropping by if your in the area and looking for that classic drive in flavor. Just make sure to bring some cash, as they don’t accept cards at all.

Three and a half kegs




The A & Dubs Drive In. And my sweet sweet Model 3 blue (best road trip car ever)

The A & Dubs menu

The menu on the side.

The Power Platter

The Power Platter. Tasty, but kind of unimpressive given then name.