So this one was one of the trickier ones to get a hold of. When I learned about it I called the Victory Brewing Company to see if I could order some. They said ‘no’ they wouldn’t mail order it. They “couldn’t” because “logistics issues” I pleaded and explained that I wanted to review it for my site. They finally said that they could send me some as a promotional sample, but only if I promised not to post about it for at least several months. That’s the strangest request I’ve ever had. They said they don’t want to build expectations for people and then disappoint them when they can’t mail order it. Still, that’s really strange. This thing called the internet kind of makes it hard to keep a secret of your product that your actively selling. Nevertheless, I’ll honor such a request to get a new root beer. Plus my queue was a year and a half out by that time. I promised I’d keep the secret. And I got some free root beer over it. Not a bad turn of events, though strange.
The Body is medium strength with vanilla but turns sour and fruity; a rich and creamy fruity, but still fruity. The Bite is decent with spices but has a smooth finish. The Head is impeccable. It’s very tall and frothy and foamy and wonderful. The Aftertaste is a fruity vanilla that builds as you drink it.
I never was one for fruity root beers. This one isn’t a bad fruity, but not a good fruity either. The whole root beer is pretty good without the fruity. The extra nice Head bumps it up a bit. I’d drink it again, if it were available. See how it rates against other root beers.
The first Route 66 themed root beer I ever encountered. It was one of the three from that Seattle Mariners game when I was in high school and one of the first probably 20 root beers I ever had. Interestingly, this was made in Charlottesville, Virginia, which is most decidedly not on Route 66. They say that they created it as a tribute to that road, but still, Virginia just seems out of place to have such a thing. That’d be like me making a Jamestown Root Beer up here in Washington as a tribute to the original American colony. Sure I could do it, but it wouldn’t make a lot of sense. Anyway I think they really just made it because the pun was too irresistible. Some people just love their puns, myself included, and will go to great lengths to create the appropriate context to use one that they find especially clever, despite the fact that the vast majority of the population does not share the sentiment. We pun-ishers are such an under appreciated lot. So someone at Roadside Beverage Company (the company that makes this) loved the Root 66 root beer so much that even though he was in Virginia, he figured it was his only shot to send his pun to the world. I thank him for his determination.
I know what you’re thinking. “Eric, Chowning’s Tavern is just Dominion Root Beer with a different label.” Yes, this is true. This is just a relabled Dominion. However, way back in 1998 when I tried Dominion root beer it had significantly different ingredients. And in between then and now, they had changed their recipe as well. So this is the third iteration of Dominion and Chowning’s Tavern Root Beer where they’ve kept their name the same. It really bugs me when companies doe that since I don’t like going back and changing reviews. Therefore I’m just filing this under Chowning’s Tavern. It’s a stretch by my standards, I know, but it’s a new root beer with a “new” name. This is only served in Colonial Williamsburg Taverns. I’m not sure if the strange colonial looking man on the label is mister Chowning but he looks like a Chowning.
