The Museum of Root Beer in Wisconsin Dells—one of the Midwest’s most iconic tourism destinations—welcoming families, travelers, and root beer lovers locally, regionally, around the country, and internationally. Five years ago, they opened the world’s first museum dedicated entirely to the history, culture, and craft of root beer. I was a backer then and attended their grand opening. Since then, tens of thousands of visitors have walked through their doors, shared their stories, and reminded us why this uniquely American beverage deserves a home of its own.
Now their moving on to the next chapter, and expanding, and they need our help. I’ve backed it again this time and hope to see them see success.
Last weekend I was in Denver for decidedly not DERMS. I took a weekend getaway with the wife to just relax and have fun. I can travel not for work afterall, it’s just a lot rarer. So anyways, since it’d been awhile since I’ve been there went a searching and found the Bull & Bush Brewery. The Bull & Bush Brewery was started in 1971 by two identical twin brothers in Glendale, a suburb of Denver. It’s modeled after an old English Pub, also called the Bull & Bush, which was started in the 1600s. They even went to the English country side to get artifacts and design ideas. And truly, as one who’s traveled through a bit of Europe, I definitely felt those old pub vibes. They still have some items that have been on their menu for 55 years. I don’t think the root beer has been there since the beginning but it is now so that’s all that matters.
The Body is rich and creamy with a robust classic sassafras flavor mixed with a lot of sweet vanilla and spices. There’s a solid Bite that’s prickly and spicy but silky smooth on the finish. The Head is short, but frothy. The Aftertaste is that smooth, sweet, spiced vanilla that lasts the perfect amount of time.
Now this is my type of root beer. I really loved it. They give you one free refill per order and my wife felt one pint was enough for her, and it was too good to let a 3 glass just not be drunk by me. I just wish it could build a bigger Head. The waiter even tried with my 2nd refill, I told him just half a glass and the rest foam, but a centimeter was about all it could manage. I would have given it an extra half a keg could it have given me at least an inch. That food was amazing too, and the portion size was vast, so bring a hearty appetite and thirst, because this place has it all.
Bull & Bush Brewery looking right out of 17th Century Europe
The Colorado Style – Mashed Potatoes. Has a green chili and pork gravy. So delicious and also huge.
I got their Legendary Fish & Chips and my wife got their Creekside Salad. Both were amazing!
Back in May I was in San Diego, working, DERMSing, and also, visiting my Aunt Mom. I call her my Aunt Mom because she’s my Mom’s identical twin and she does look and sound uncannily like my mom. It is a strange experience growing up having a parent with a twin. Anyways, enough of that. Pizza Port. We met up and decided to go there because I’d known about Pizza Port for awhile now but had never the time to get there. Sometimes I’m far too busy to take an excursion. This time I wasn’t. Pizza Port is a small pizza and brewery chain around the San Diego area. The owners have been running it since 1987 with focus on great pizza and house brewed beers, for which they’ve won quite a few rewards. They also brew a house root beer, which my Aunt and cousins and I went to try along with some pizza.
The Body is sweet but not too sweet with a solid sassafras core that just, is. There aren’t a lot of other flavors in there. There’s Bite though, it’s spicy, but other than sassafras and those Bite spices, it’s just, plain. The Head is very short but it does maintain a slight ring of foam around the rim. The Aftertaste is light and then gone quickly.
This root beer is all core and no accents. It’s perfectly generic yet not at all unpleasant. It complements their pizza extraordinarily well and though I didn’t get one of their root beer floats, I imagine that a scoop of quality vanilla ice cream would make a heavenly float. So while it isn’t the best root beer by any means, it’s quite a well designed root beer for a meal/float option. The specialty pizza options are pretty impressive and the Meet Extreme Meat pizza we got was just amazing.
