My first root beer book post. Well, I mean, my first root beer book post since I started doing Wednesday posts about other root beer products and things. I thought I’d take a break from hard candy (I’ve got more, fear not) and check my local library to see if there were any good books on Root Beer. This is written by Tom Morrison, who is/was one of the more avid collectors of root beer paraphernalia, in 1992. At over 100 pages, it is filled with photos from his collection.
The book is organized in 12 chapters: History, Bottles, Caps, Cans, Dispensers, Drinking Glasses, Magazine Ads, Matchbook Covers, Mugs, Trading Cards, Signs, and Miscellaneous. Each chapter has a brief description of how that type of item featured in the history of root beer, followed by pages of photo examples.
This book is a treasure trove of root beer history and nostalgia. That guides you through its storied past to the present day. Many long lost brands are represented as well as many that have been resurrected and endured. I was pleased to see some now dead brands that I was able to review mentioned here. This book is a must read for any true devotees of root beer, as it simply and eloquently paints the picture of root beer’s past in a way that is hard to surpass. It’s also a very good starting point for anyone looking to start their own root beer collection. I wish I’d read this years ago.
A sample page showing glasses and magazine ads.
Last Saturday I had the wonderful opportunity to meet one of the world’s leading collector’s of root beer paraphernalia, Vince. He was up in Minneapolis for some reason and I had empty bottles to get to him for his collection. I told him to meet me at Indeed Brewing Company, cause I knew they had a brew that I needed to try. To be honest I don’t know much about this brewery, other than one of my coworkers told me they have root beer. It’s a rather larger brewery by some railroad tracks about half an hour from my house. They don’t have any food in their taproom, owing to those pesky Minnesota laws, but not even the popcorn or peanuts that are quite common in others. I met Vince and his friends and got down to business. 
Last week I was in Toronto for work, doing the things I do when I go off to travel for work. I’d been there in the summer, for less than a day, and had been frustrated that the Mill Street Brewery pub in the airport was in a different terminal than the one I flew out of, so I couldn’t get any root beer. This time I had many a evening free, but I was determined to get it my first night, just in case. Though Mill Street Brewery has expanded to several locations, their original, in the Distillery District, is where I went. The whole district is in a 19th century whiskey distillery, and it all arts and crafty now, the sort of place you’d hope to find a craft brewery with their own root beer. 
