GourmetRootBeer

Gold Mine Root Beer

Jan 022019

Gold Mine Root Beer Bottle Another super premium packaged root beer. There’ve been more of these as late, and I for one am happy to see root beer taken to the next level. This is from Rocket Fizz, maker of many celebrity root beers of varying quality. The bottle size and wax seal immediately made me think of Indian Wells Special Reserve. They actually are both made at the same place, but are unique recipes. Plus this has shiny gold wax. In keeping with the old-timey feel, they have stock certificates in the Rocket Fizz Gold Mining Company. Each stock certificate is worth 1/5th of a root beer, a Death Valley Root Beer, which is also made by Indian Wells, but well, um, isn’t a root beer worth getting at all. So, yeah, stock in a worthless root beer is available as part of the gimmick with this. But what about the brew itself?

It has a rich creamy Body with distinctive, yet not overpowering licorice. Like, just enough that I still like it, which isn’t a lot. There is a minty hint to it as well. The Bite could be spicier, but it is present. It’s mild and on the smooth side. The Head is most excellent. Very tall and foamy and just perfect. The Aftertaste is a sweet, spiced vanilla. Very pleasant.

It’s a complex and yummy brew, though not as good as the Special Reserve, it still squeaks by at a Seal of Approval, just barely. I was quite on the fence with this, but the second bottle won me over. Who cares about those stock certificates, just give me more of this. Though, at the price point ($7/bottle), I doubt I’ll be buying much more. See how it rates against other root beers.

A New Year, a New Era

Website Updates No Responses »

Jan 012019

So, it’s been eight years since I started this blog as part of my site, giving a weekly review every Wednesday. It’s been quite a journey and my devotion to root beer couldn’t be stronger, but, unfortunately, I’m faced with the reality that there just aren’t 52 new types of bottled root beers being made a year, and I’ve found just about all that there are to be had. Those I’m still searching for won’t be able to keep up with the inexorable march of time. And while I had an unprecedented year of travel in 2018, and hope to continue the pace in 2019, I’m not going to find enough new breweries and root beer stands to keep pace. I’m sorry, the weekly root beer review, cannot continue. A weekly post, however, can. I won’t lower my standards and drink from cans and plastic bottles, neither will I review sarsaparillas, birch beers, and the like, but there are a lot of root beer things out there. There’s songs, books, movies, and root beer flavored food, like candies, cookies, and ice cream. And I’m going to start exploring these, for the love of root beer, and share that exploration with you all.

So here’s how it’s going to go down:

The first Wednesday of every month will be a standard root beer review as we’ve come to know and love.
Every other Wednesday will be a post about something root beer related. A kind of review about the product and how I feel about it.

Obviously with such a diverse range of things I won’t be giving keg ratings, but I will give either a recommend or a skip sort of review, to let you know if whatever it is captures the spirit and flavor of root beer properly. I’ll also be augmenting these posts with some more of my homebrew adventures, having received as a Christmas presents the means to properly carbonate my brews (more on that in later posts).

I hope this works out and everyone likes this new direction. Please let me know in the comments if you got any other ideas or general feedback on my idea. Sorry again I can’t just keep doing weekly reviews, but the brews just aren’t there. So here’s to the next stage of The Gourmet Root Beer Blog!

Tommyknocker All Natural Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Dec 262018

Tommyknocker All Natural Root Beer Bottle I told you last time that I hoped it was the last time. Alas, it was not to be. Strange to hear me bemoaning a new root beer to review, but I’m just getting tired of Tommyknocker’s antics. They’re like the gambling addict who can’t quit when he’s ahead, or even when he’s losing badly. Just one more try they say, I’ll win it back, I’ll win more… It never works that way. They had a Seal of Approval, with their New Root Beer, they’d finally achieved some redemption, but no, they wanted to give it another shot, another spin on the wheel, and change their recipe. At least they had the decency to change their name again. Now it’s All Natural Root Beer, because evidently that’s just what they needed. They also dispensed with their “1859” and “original” from their labels, knowing that trying to claim the same original recipe since inception was so laughable it had become sad. Despite my annoyance, I dutifully purchased my bottles to see what they’d concocted this time.

The Body is medium strength with maple and aged vanilla flavors that are all out of balance and don’t ensemble well at all. It’s also sort of sour. The Bite is spicy yet smooth so that’s at least good. The Head is excellent! The Aftertaste is a clumsy mix of maple, vanilla, and wintergreen wrapped in some sour herbs.

Tommyknocker, what have you done? This is by far your worst brew yet. Though the Head and the Bite are good, the Body and the Aftertaste fail hard. It’s like you stopped trying halfway through. I figured it wouldn’t impress, but to be downright bad? Every try before at least had a rather rich mapley goodness, but now, it’s barely there. You had the Seal, you were ahead, but like the gambler, you put it all on black for double or nothing, and it landed on green. I’m sure in two more years they’ll tweak their recipe and name yet again. I have a feeling it will only get worse. See how it rates against other root beers.

Older Entries Newer Entries