May 312017
 

The Three Stooges Wise Guy Root Beer Bottle So Rocket Fizz is back with another old TV show personality root beer. Since it’s their third, they decided triple down as it were, with the Three Stooges, perhaps a plug at their own inanity in continuing to make ever more root beers which compete primarily against the old TV personality root beers they’ve already made. The “Wise Guy” is a nice touch though, as is having all of the label in black and white other than their hats. Perhaps they’re planning on discontinuing one of the others. Perhaps they’ll keep cycling new ones. That’s good for me as a reviewer, as long as they don’t recycle recipes. This one has ester gum, which is a new ingredient for my list, so at least this one’s new. Now the real question is, will drinking it be like getting poked in the eye or watching someone else get poked in the eye?

It has a rather generic Body that’s rich and creamy. Licorice and something out of place and herbal are also present. There really isn’t much Bite other than carbonation, but it isn’t smooth either. The Head is really tall and foamy, no complaints there. The Aftertaste is vanilla with a little licorice.

This is good but rather unremarkable. It’s better than a poke in the eye, but not quite as much fun as watching those Stooges poking each other’s eyes. It is better than the previous two Rocket Fizz root beers, so they’re improving. Maybe in the future they’ll make one worth buying for more than the novelty factor. But not yet. See how it rates against rates against other root beers.

Three and a half kegs




Mar 202013
 

Gene Autry Root Beer Bottle Inspired by the success (or jealous of it) of Judge Wapner Root Beer, Gene Autry, or his foundation or fans or someone (since Gene’s dead), decided that they wanted to get a piece of that action and hence Gene Autry Root Beer. And why not? Root beer is the all American drink and Gene Autry was arguably one of the most all Americans that has ever been produced. A singing cowboy actor who wrote famous Christmas songs, owned rodeo stocks and part of a baseball team, and flew dangerous missions as a pilot in WWII. With a resume like that the biggest question is why it took so long for him to get his own root beer, especially when you consider his TV show’s appeal among children? Interestingly, both Gene Autry and Judge Wapner root beers are produced by Rocket Fizz so it seems that they’re competing against themselves for market share in the celebrity root beer market. I’m not sure if I hope that the trend of celebrity root beers ends here or not. On the one hand some people are so epic that there is no question they deserve a brew named after them, on the other hand, this could get way out of control where you could get a Kardashian family six pack with each being a different flavor of root beer. More root beers for me to review I suppose.

The Body is very light and mild. Vanilla and wintergreen surface after a few seconds and add some much needed flavor to it. It has a very harsh Bite from the carbonation and citric acid that gives way to a prickly burn. I’m not a fan. The Head is nice; medium height and pretty frothy, it lingers for awhile. The Aftertaste is yummy vanilla and wintergreen that lasts a long time so if you drink the whole bottle pretty fast, those flavors build and the whole thing gets much better. If you just sip it slowly however, it stays pretty weak at the beginning of each drink.

That’s disappointing. On the whole it’s not bad but it needs a lot more to move to the next level. It is all natural (if citric acid is natural) so it’s got that going for it at least, but honestly, Gene deserves better than this. See how it rates against other root beers.

Three kegs