GourmetRootBeer

Thomas Kemper Purely Natural Root Beer

 Bottled Root Beers  No Responses »
Mar 212012
 

Back in September, as I was busy searching for new root beers, I discovered Thomas Kemper Purely Natural Root Beer on another reviewers blog. I was surprised, because I had never seen or even heard about this brew and Thomas Kemper is made in Portland, and can be found all over the Seattle area and the Pacific Northwest in general. Nearly every grocery store and gas station carries it. I figured it must be so new that it hadn’t had time to proliferate through the region. I sent the company an email asking which retail outlets carried it, and kept my eye out as I traveled around. After a few months of not seeing it, I sent the company another email asking where I could find it. I got a response from the company president telling me that they had recently discontinued the purely natural line. What?? A gourmet root beer had been born and killed right under my nose before I ever knew it existed? Say it ain’t so! Then it occurred to me, that if it was just recently discontinued, there might still be some bottles floating around out there. I searched Amazon, Ebay, all of the specialty online stores that sell root beer. Nothing. Then I took my search back to a distributor, Real Soda. I noticed it was listed on their site, but so is Journey John Barleycorn and Dr. Tima, both of which are long since dead, but I emailed them nonetheless. To my great joy, they said they still had 11 cases. I quickly made arrangements and ordered a 12 pack, 8 bottles of this stuff and 2 bottles of two other varieties. Whew, that was too close.

The Body of this is weak in the normal root beer flavors but really strong in honey and fruity. I mean there is a very significant citrusy fruity flavor that comes in after the initial flavors and overpowers them. I think this can be blamed on the pectin they put in there for some reason. There isn’t really much Bite, a little carbonation tingle but a distinct lack of spices. The Head is excellent, tall and frothy, and is the one redeeming feature of the brew. The Aftertaste is a fruity honey flavor that lasts far too long. This flavor compounds so the more you drink the stronger it gets and the less you want to drink it.

For comparison, with the second bottle, I had a regular Thomas Kemper side as well, and this is worse in all categories. I mean, it isn’t even remotely like the regular Thomas Kemper. This stuff is really bad. What astounds me is that they start with cane sugar, honey, and maltodextrin, like Bulldog, and still manage to make it horrible. Why did they make it taste overwhelmingly fruity? I don’t know, but thankfully it has been discontinued so the masses can be spared its vileness. Perhaps that is the true reason for it’s demise. See how it rate against other root beers.




Brewbakers Surf City Root Beer

 Bottled Root Beers  2 Responses »
Mar 142012
 

So more into my questing of small microbrewery root beers. I had heard about this one from another blog and wrote an email to them since they didn’t seem to have a way to buy it online. A fine chap by the name of Dennis wrote me back and said that they didn’t sell it online but if I called they’d be glad to send me some and “it is the very best.” I called and made the purchase. About a week later I get a rather large padded envelope on my door step containing the two bottles of Surf City Root Beer, a gift certificate for $5 of merchandise at Brewbakers Restaurant and Brewery (if I’m ever in Huntington Beach, CA I guess), a restaurant menu, a brewery menu (all the different beers you can custom make), and a box hop jump tea bags. Huh? What are hop jumps? It seems from the description that they are dried hops that you put into a draft beer to make it taste fuller. I don’t know, I’ve never drank beer. I gave them to the British guy I work with and he thought they were hilarious, though he hasn’t tried them yet. I honestly think they put them in there for padding between the two bottles. And who sends root beer in only a padded envelope? These guys are different for sure, but I suppose that’s how surfer dudes are. So how is it?

Wonderful Body! Raw honey and spices complimenting solid sassafras flavor. It is also creamy from the delicious vanilla. While it isn’t overly complex, it is perfectly proportioned. The spices give a solid Bite. The Head is very nice. It’s tall and frothy as a root beer Head should be. The Aftertaste is a delightful blend of spiced vanilla and honey with the vanilla the last flavor to fade. This is beauty in the form of root beer!

Good gravy! What a shock to my root beer world. After the first bottle I realized they weren’t kidding about it being the best. I needed to make sure. I brought out the bottle of So Duh!, Hank’s, and Iron Horse for the Ultimate Root Beer Showdown just to make sure I knew where the top brews stood. Then I had my second bottle of this stuff. Then another bottle of So Duh!. Well, it isn’t quite the very best, but there was no doubt in my mind that it is an Elixir of the Gods. See how it rates against other root beers.




Thomas Creek Brewing Company Root Beer

 Draft and Keg Root Beers  No Responses »
Mar 082012
 

Awhile back, as I was trawling through the vast brand lists of root beers on Anthony’s Root Beer Barrel (that’s right, I capitalized it!) I discovered this one. I emailed the company and asked them about their root beer, since their website mentioned nothing of its existence, and where it could be found bottled. I was told in the reply that it wasn’t bottled, but I could get kegs of it at the brewery if every I were in Greenville, SC. Interestingly enough, at the time I had a paper accepted in the IEEE International Electric Vehicle Conference in Greenville, so heading there wasn’t out of the question for once. When I arrived on Sunday I found out that the hotel I was staying at didn’t have shuttle service to anywhere other than the airport and I didn’t rent a car. I tried in vain to find someone to give me a ride. Throughout this time, the conference shuttle service was atrocious leaving me and my newly met international friends quite stranded and unable to make decent plans. I finally snapped on Tuesday night and decided to sleep in and rent a car in the morning. I was pleased to find that a car for the day would be the same price as a taxi to the airport, and I could even leave it at the airport. Well, that sealed the deal. The first break I got headed off to the brewery with two of my new found friends. When I got there I was finally able to use a line I have been wanting to use for over 10 years now, “Hello, my name is Eric. I’m from gourmetrootbeer.com and I’d like to try your root beer.” Brilliantly it worked! They brought out some sample glasses, one for each of us perfectly poured from a keg, and then at my request, brought out some full sized glasses so I could drink more of the rather delicious brewgive a more accurate review.

This is has a medium Body with accents of creamy vanilla and fruity. There is a tad too much fruitiness for my tastes. There is a solid bite from cinnamon and other spices such that it reminds me a of a Myers Avenue Red, though not nearly as creamy. The Head is beautifully frothy because, to quote the head brew master with respect to root beers sporting the 2 second Head, “Those aren’t root beers.” I heartily agree. He adds sufficient yucca to build a beautiful Head but not too much that it starts to taste bitter or gross. The Aftertaste is cinnamon and a little fruity vanilla.

So, a solid brew, better than the average gourmet root beer for sure. It’s tasty and foamy and only comes from kegs. It’s on the milder side so that even the German girl who came with us, Eva, liked it having never had root beer before (Europeans generally detest root beer if you didn’t know). I didn’t really like that fruity flavor though, so it won’t getting my Seal of Approval, but it would be great with a pizza. Which happens to be the only other place you can get it, Brixx Wood Fired Pizza, also in Greenville. There’s talk of bottling it some day in the future, so if they do, I’ll give it another try. Check the pictures below as well.

 

The small tasting glass I was originally given.

The full size glasses with two of my IEEE friends in the background

 

Me and two of my IEEE friends trying out the root beer.




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