GourmetRootBeer

Pure Sodaworks Root Beer #4

Mar 182015

Pure Soda Works Root Beer #4 Root Beer My lovely wife got me a four-pack of this for me for Christmas. Root beer Christmas presents are always the best Christmas presents, and Hanukkah presents, and birthday presents, and Valentine’s Day presents, and wedding anniversary presents, and … Easter presents? You get the idea. This one I could tell was different just by looking at it. It’s all natural and is kind of pale amber. I’ve said before that the only reason a root beer is colored brown is because some of the original, natural ingredients were brown, and if it isn’t brown it doesn’t have those ingredients. My other question is why #4? Was there a number 1-3? Regardless, I’ve now had a Batch 001, 002, and a No. 9 root beer, so #4 is really just a natural progression of things. I’m sure I’ll collect the missing six numbers to complete my base ten digits root beer collection.

The Body is light and creamy and with ginger and herbs the prominent flavors. It tastes like a spiced ginger tea with some vanilla. The Bite is good and robust. It’s nice and spicy with ginger and cinnamon and some other spices with some carbonation burn mixed in. The Head is super tall and very frothy. The Aftertaste is a light vanilla and spice flavor.

This is tastes really good, but not at all like root beer. More like an iced herb tea. You would never call it a root beer if it didn’t say so on the bottle. It’s always a conundrum about how to rate such root beers, with me generally falling into the if-it-doesn’t-taste-like-root-beer-it-doesn’t-rate-high-as-a-root-beer camp. This is no exception. It is a fine, delicious soda, but I’d never, EVER drink it if I needed a root beer fix. See how it rates against other root beers.

Root Beer Changes – Tommyknocker Changes Again and So Does Polar

Root Beer News No Responses »

Mar 172015

Tommyknocker and Polar
Some people hate staying the same. They eschew tradition and continuity in favor of change. The principle offender in the root beer world of this is Tommyknocker, having changed its name twice and its recipe four times in the last 10 years. So why would they keep with a good Seal of Approval formula? This time their “New Root Beer” is gone, replaced by an All Natural Root Beer, and since they changed the name they figured they shuffle the ingredients a bit, adding things like citric acid and deciding it’s wiser to put more Organic Root Beer Flavor than Caramel Color. So a new name, a new recipe, means new reviews for folks that do that sort of thing.

Polar, the makers of Polar Classics Premium Root Beer was so inspired that they decided to change their label, name, and recipe too. Like adding more sugar and getting rid of their artificial ingredients. Now root beer reviewers everywhere can rejoice that there are two new brews to try and write about. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some root beer to drink.

Central Coast Brewing Company Old Fashioned Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Mar 112015

Central Coast Brewing Company Old Fashioned Root Beer Bottle This one’s pretty unique is that it comes from a small brewery and it’s actually bottled. Many, many breweries make their own root beer, but few of them go to the trouble of bottling it. Even fewer put it in only 22 ounce bottles so it’s of epic root beer proportions. I’ve had exactly one other type of root beer in a 22 ounce bottle at the time of writing this, also from California coincidentally. I heard about it from another website and sent them an email asking to order some. I waited for a long time and gave up on them. Then a couple of months later they responded saying that my email was in their spam folder. That’s the problem with putting the website url in my signature I’m sure. Oh well. I got a six-pack which is pretty massive. On reading the label I noticed that it said “No Preservatives – Keep Refrigerated” Which is also something you seldom encounter with a root beer. It was nice though because my wife only likes to drink natural, non-preserved root beer, so I could share some of each bottle with her. My mug is only 20 ounces after all and though the ingredients and nutritional information isn’t labeled anywhere, I figured it’s close enough to being all natural.

The Body is somewhat rich with a full sassafras flavor complimented by some light vanilla and wintergreen hints. The Bite is very nice with a bit of spice that I can’t place and some carbonation burn. The Head is very tall but only moderately frothy. It fizzes down quickly but the last bit lingers awhile. The Aftertaste is light vanilla and wintergreen that vanishes seconds after you swallow. It’s the biggest flaw in this I feel.

This is pretty middle of the road as far as root beers go. It doesn’t really take any chances in the flavor department so probably the majority of root beer fans will find it pleasant enough. Though it’s an all around solid brew, it doesn’t really move me the way my favorites do. See how it rates against other root beers.

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