Another home brew from Minnesota. It reminds me a lot of Spring Lake Root Beer. They both have black and white labels that are home printed on standard printer paper glued to the bottle. They both are little home brew operations only about 40 minutes apart. And, they both say something about grandpa on the bottle. If I didn’t know any better I’d say they were made by the same guys, but I do know better and their ingredients are different as well. It seems like Happy Camp’r is trying to one up Spring Lake, as Spring Lake says “As Good As Grandpa Remembers” and Happy Camp’r says “The best root beer grandpa’s ever had!” I wonder what will be next in the War of Grandpa Root Beer One-upmanship. But label aside, the real question is how I like it.
The Body is sweet and a little creamy, but much more dark and with licorice and molasses flavors. The Bite spicy but a little harsh. I wish it were a bit smoother. The Head is very tall with decent staying power but by no means top tier. The Aftertaste is licorice and molasses that finishes a little bitter.
So this is decent but not my style. When I’m a grandpa, I know which of these Minnesota brews I’ll be recommending. I don’t know what my grandpa would say about them, as I’ve no grandpas left, but maybe he would try this and say its the best he’s ever had. See how it rates against other root beers.
Homer is a small farm town in Illinois. The soda company that bears its name is family owned and operated. They sell some of there own flavors and bottle other flavors. This root beer came about one day when the family went to the Champaign County Forest Preserve and learned how to make maple syrup. They were so excited they went home to make their own syrup, presumably from their own sugar maple trees. They liked their syrup so much that they wanted to see how it tasted in a root beer, and thus the Maple Syrup Root Beer was born. They even donate a portion of the sales of each bottle back to the CCFP as a thanks for the inspiration, which is always nice to see. 
So my good buddy from the 
