I’ve been chasing after this one for awhile now. I had learned about it from a Google Maps search of “brewery Seattle” and then calling all of the ones that showed up. The Pike Brewing Company said they had Skagit River Brewery Root Beer on tap. It wasn’t for another six months before I found myself near Pike Place doing some charge testing on a Chevy Volt. When I finished up I headed to the brewery to give the Skagit a try. Unfortunately, it wasn’t there. They’d stopped serving it a month before I came and replaced it with Crater Lake Root Beer on tap, ugh. Crater Lake is awful. I kept looking and eventually I heard the Root Beer Store had a keg of it. The owner warned me though, “I remember it being flat, tasteless, and like diet the last time I served it at an event. I hoped it would go good in ice cream. It didn’t. I took it out, and you are welcome to the pony keg. Its in my warehouse……drinker beware.” I reminded him that whether or not I like it is irrelevant, I need to try it to find out. I stopped by later that day and filled my growler, took it home and gave it a good chill before trying the next night.
The Body is sweet but mild and watered down, really watered down. Actually that’s too generous, it tastes like burned sugar water, a little caramely and then nothing. The Bite is virtually nonexistent. The slightest bit of acidic sour burn and then that vanishes as well. The Aftertaste is slight watered down sugar and a little sour acid.
Ok, he was right. This stuff is tasteless. It’s like they brewed sugar and citric acid and then called it a day before remembering that root beer does, in fact, have other ingredients. I never thought I’d say it, but switching this out for Crater Lake is a major improvement. These Skagit guys got lucky that I tried it out of a growler and didn’t evaluate the Head, from the sound of things they would have lost more points for that. Either way though, drinker beware.
I ordered this online a few years back as part of a variety pack. I can’t remember the circumstances very well, probably just another pack of 12 bottles and 4 varieties while I was an undergrad at BYU. I chose it for no particular reason, there were lots of brews back then that I needed. I’d always try to grab at least one that I though would be good and one I thought looked terrible and then ones that were cheap, with this being one of the cheap ones. The bottle is pretty simple but does have a nice label. It is actually produced by White Rock Beverages, one of America’s oldest beverage companies from 1871 or something. It’s also Kosher which is actually pretty easy to achieve with a soda but important if you’re in a place like New York with a large Jewish population. 
So back in March I found myself in Salt Lake City again to give another seminar on electric vehicles. This time it was at the University of Utah. I’d hit the area pretty hard back in February but was certain that there was some gourmet root beer left to be found. Sure enough, a devoted web search revealed Red Rock Brewery where they make their own root beer and cream soda. As soon as I landed and got the rental car, I knew where I was heading. I took a seat at the bar and ordered a pint, no ice, lots of foam.
