Randomly one day I got an email from a kindly fellow named Akira, who also likes to review root beers up in Canada. Even cooler is his name is all Japanese, and my sister is living in Japan, and my brothers are both currently in Canada on missions. Akira brought up that there’s several fine Canadian brews (racinettes pour la francophonie au Canada) that I hadn’t tried, one of which was this, which has the greatest name for a brew, Brewski. It’s bottled by The Pop Shoppe for Jack Astor’s Bar and Grill. The ingredients appear to be different so I’m going with this being a unique recipe. He shipped it with another two root beers which ended up completely smashed despite a large box and much padding. Those darn Mounties must have trodden upon it with their horses. I knew Canada as a country didn’t like me, but that’s taking it a little too far.
The Body is sweet and a little creamy. There is some vanilla coming through but overall it’s on the light side. The Bite is almost non-existant. It is extremely smooth and lacks spice or even fizz after being poured. The Head is impeccable. It is tall enough that I can’t pour a whole bottle in my mug, and lasts forever. I’m talking Diamond Head type for-ev-ER! I think it may be the best Head I’ve encountered so far. The Aftertaste is a light and sweet vanilla that’s gone too soon.
Other than the fabulous Head, this brew is rather bland. I reminds me an awful lot of The Pop Shoppe, but it doesn’t have the fruity hint. It doesn’t taste bad at all though, and the Head earns it some bonus points, it’s even better than Pop Shoppe, looks like I’ll have to crown a new winner of the Diamond Head Award, if, of course, I had such an award. See how it rates against other root beers.
This has a really cool bottle. I’ve never seen another bottle like it. It’s really neat when a company has their own unique bottle. It’s a classy bottle as well. With the diamonds, the embossed name, and the short stubby look to it. The label is even painted on, so it makes me wonder if they still reuse their bottles. The company is Canadian in origin whose founders seem to be anti-hippies according to their website which is more to their credit. Their original gimmick was that they would have their own pop outlets to cut out the middle man and reduce prices. While it worked for awhile they were eventually bought and now, thankfully, you can get them through other distributors, which is how I cam across this on.