GourmetRootBeer

Joe’s Root Beer

Feb 222012

So awhile back I noticed that I had as many friends on Facebook as I had root beer reviews (not my site but my personal Facebook account). I therefore decided that I shall only have as many friends as root beers tried and if someone wanted to be my friend and I was maxed out, they would just have to find me a new root beer. I then posted that as my status. It got a few likes and one of my more awesome friends (also a stalwart zombie tag comrade and CFH) took it as a personal challenge to earn his already deserved many times over friend status by finding me a new root beer. Since he likes gourmet beer, he kept an eye out at all of specialty beer shops he went to until he declared he had a late Christmas present for me. I was overjoyed when I unwrapped Joe’s Root Beer, another small and obscure microbrewery root beer like Spring Lake Root Beer. This one, however, is all natural instead of having a cocktail of preservatives like the Spring Lake. The ingredients are few but with things like real honey and vanilla, it looked like it could be amazing.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the bottle was that there was kind of a skanky smell to it. Now I don’t judge on smell but it usually portends the flavor. Nevertheless, it has an extremely sweet and full Body with accents of said vanilla and honey. It is crisp and creamy in your mouth without a hint of skanky. Strange. The Bite is sufficient, though, nothing special. The Head is wonderfully tall but only medium frothy so it fizzes down quicker than I would like. The Aftertaste is delicious vanilla and honey.

So this is how root beer is supposed to be. Delicious, a good head, and with that honey and vanilla giving it an extra bit of goodness to push it over the edge of average into premium territory. I would say it’s almost the opposite of the Spring Lake Root Beer, which was a near perfect combination of just about everything, this is beauty in simplicity, like a masterpiece using only two colors. Now the only question I have for my friend, where did you get this again? See how it rates against other root beers.

Root Beer for Breakfast – Challenge Accepted!

Random Root Beer-ness No Responses »

Feb 182012

So a little bit ago, those fine root beer lovers, The Root Beer Brothers, issued a challenge. Have root beer and granola for breakfast. Not being one to back down from a root beer challenge (unless said challenge involves the words “can”, “plastic”, or “diet”) I went to the store and got some granola.

I decided on a simple honey almond granola since I do like honey in my root beer. Then I needed to choose a root beer. I thought about A&W like the brothers, but they’d already done that so I figured I’d try something new. Since I like vanilla and honey I settled on Frostie Vanilla Root Beer, since it is ultra-vanilla creamy and there’s no honey flavor to it. I tried to find the Vance Gilbert “Root Beer for Breakfast” on Grooveshark to listen to, but it wasn’t there. Alas, I had to settle for “Root Beer” by George Jones. So with “Root Beer” on loop, I poured the granola and root beer.

The first bite was interesting to be sure, the Frostie Vanilla mixed with the granola flavors and had a melted ice cream color. It kind of tasted like a melted ice cream mix. Despite my effort to pair flavors, they were a horrible combination. Half way through my monstrous bowl, I was feeling sick to my stomach. The last bite couldn’t come quickly enough. Blech. What a terrible idea. At least with the root beer I picked. Perhaps a more stout root beer would do the trick, but honestly, I can’t see myself trying it again, not for a very long time at least. I think the following limerick sums up the experience:

There once was a brother named Root,
Whose blog posts are quite a hoot,
He challenged for cheer
granola and root beer
But when I finished I wished he’d stayed mute.

My bowl of granola and root beer.

Glewwe’s Castle Brewery Spring Lake Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers 9 Responses »

Feb 152012

I always like to find an obscure microbrewery root beer, and this brew just screams low volume microbrewery. Conversations with Mr. Glewwe himself verify the infancy and scale of the operation (as does the primative website). The label is black ink on standard 18 lb printer paper that I think they just glue (Glewwe?) on the bottle. It seems to be printed out from an old ink jet as well, classic. The bottle itself is quite different than your standard long neck root beer bottle as well and it isn’t a twist top. It seems that they pay people $1 per six pack of empties and they don’t care about color or shape so they’re doing some good recycling. What a find! The big conundrum for me is that it is called Spring Lake root beer but it is from Prior Lake, MN. So which is it? Spring or Prior, or is it the Prior Spring? Whatever, on to the important stuff.

Wow! What a full and complex Body! There’s lots of wintergreen and creamy vanilla with some birch as well that surfaces after the initial contact with the core root beer flavors. There’s also a subtle honey flavor. It isn’t super sweet though so you can relish the flavors. The Bite is pretty mild but not absent. There’s some spice kick to it but an unbelievably smooth finish from the malto-dextrin. The Head is short and medium froth. It fizzes down quickly but not too quickly to seriously hurt the rating. The Aftertaste is creamy wintergreen with hints of vanilla and honey, though, wintergreen is by far the dominant flavor.

So again, wow! What an amazing and unique brew. It’s like they took a root beer and a birch beer and combined them in a way to get the best of both. The bottle does come with a warning reading “This fine beverage could leave you wanting more. We say ‘Just ask for More.’ Drink and Enjoy” I assume that More is one of their distributors or something, but indeed, this does leave you wanting more. Lest I be all praise it could use a better head and a slightly spicier Bite. It also says “Made with the finest ingredients and patience in accordance to traditional brewing practices.” I believe them on this one. They proved it. I highly doubt that this brew will remain in obscurity much longer, and all’s the better. I look forward to the day I can just pick this up at a specialty foods store near me. See how it rates against other root beers.

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