It seems that Ol’ (young actually) Capt’n Eli taught his dog how to brew root beer. At least that’s what the first issue of the graphic novel said if I remember correctly. Sea Dog is made by the same people and I learned about it after I sadly told them that while good, they wouldn’t be getting the Seal of Approval. I asked if they had any other root beer, specifically the Sea Dog that was mentioned on their site at the time, if it was a different recipe. They said that it was and they said they’d send me some Sea Dog to try. Sea Dog is also a brewery for those other beers and actually predates Capt’n Eli yet it seems that Eli was the one who made it. Confused yet? You should be. Since the Sea Dog mascot is the same as Eli’s dog in the novel (plus him teaching the dog was part of the flashback origin story), maybe it does actually form a single root beer continuum. Eli taught his dog to brew root beer with the root beer machine, then later he wanted to make his own root beer because, let’s face it, dogs will eat anything and just because a dog likes it doesn’t mean people will. Glad that’s all cleared up.
It has a full flavored, smooth Body but unfortunately too much anise (I expect that he learned that from the Cap’.) There is not much Bite. It is really smooth which I do like though I think it should have a little bit more too it. The Head is excellent! It is difficult to pour a whole bottle into a mug. The head lasts almost as long as a diamond. Unfortunately it doesn’t taste so good. The Aftertaste is a creamy vanilla and anise. Not really bad but not overly good. Overall it is a solid brew but not quite exceptional.
I must say, Sea Dog is pretty good. There is a lot of attention to details for a dog. It reminds me a lot of Capt’n Eli’s but it’s got a better head and the flavor is a little different as well. I’d say I like Eli’s better, which fits with the whole root beer continuum, but not much better. See how it rates against other root beers.
Across the Puget Sound from my home is the city of Silverdale and the Silver City Brewery. They’re unique from the other breweries that also do root beer in that they use it in their cooking and are proud of it. They make a root beer barbeque sauce and use it on their baby back ribs and their pulled pork sandwich for example. But that’s not all, they also have a “BBQ Root Beer Burger” on the menu, which has bacon, onion rings, lettuce, tomato, and lots of the root beer BBQ sauce. Now that’s what I like to see. Name your burger after the root beer. There should be more of that. Back in June, on a nice sunny Saturday, my family and I took the 1 hour ferry (our first time) across the Sound to Bremerton to try out this brew and the food made with it.
One day, out of the blue, I get an email from the people at 