GourmetRootBeer

Dunsmuir Brewery Works Root Beer

Dec 212016

Dunsmuir Brewery Works Root Beer Growler Another growler review, finally! I can hear you all saying that. Yes, I know, I’ve neglected getting growlers because it’s much more fun to just buy it on tap, but with an estimated 2,000 different breweries that make root beer across this great land of ours (my estimate, not even counting Canadia), unless I suddenly win a lottery that I haven’t entered, or have some rich relative who I am not aware I have die and bequeath me a fortune, traveling all over the place getting to them is just not gonna happen. Maybe I could start a GoFundMe … you’d all send me money so I can travel around right? Right? Yeah right. So I’ll have to start trading for growlers. Thankfully I have friends in many places, like The Root Beer Trackers who hit up a lot of different places, like the Dunsmuir Brewery Works in Dunsmuir, CA. The irony is that I actually drove past Dunsmuir this past summer on my my amazing Tesla Gigafactory Root Beer Road Trip, but I didn’t check if there was anything there. I’m pretty sure my friends were getting tired of stopping though, so it’s probably for the best. This brewery is a newer one, only opening in 2009 in a town of less than 2,000 people. So massive props for making a root beer as well.

The Body is not very sweet and despite a nice initial contact, is rather empty and bitter. There is a lot of wintergreen and clove in there. The clove adds to the Bite, which is solid and spicy and wonderful. The Aftertaste, however, is bitter and empty.

I don’t really like this at all. I wish I did, but after the initial wonderful Bite, this brew falls flat on its face by being bitter and empty. Good thing I didn’t get my Tesla caravan to stop for it, they wouldn’t have been happy.

2 out of 5 root beer kegs

Sprecher Honey Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Dec 142016

Sprecher Honey Root Beer Bottle My 300th root beer review! For such a special moment I had to pick a special brew and this one is special indeed. Sprecher Honey Root Beer is a limited edition celebratory soda made in honor of Sprecher Brewing Company’s 30th year. They did a limited production run of only 3000 cases. So it was the natural pick for my 300th, to complete the trifecta of 3 times increasingly larger powers of 10. Also this brau is sweetened with only raw honey. Which is a bold move as too much honey can be dangerous. Yet, I love honey and I love Sprecher, so this should be good. I love the honey themed label, with the demonic raven thingy now clutching a hive. It also says “Craft Soda”. While I prefer to go with the label of gourmet root beer, craft soda/root beer is an appropriate label as well. I’ll write more about those distinctions another day, because the Sprecher is waiting.

The Body is light on standard root beer flavors and very heavy on the honey, being the only sweetener. It’s sort of a fruity raw honey which overpowers the rest of the flavors. The Bite is a light honey bite on the back of your throat. If you’ve ever eaten a spoonful of raw honey, you know what I mean. The carbonation is severely lacking, sadly, which makes the brew even heavier. The Head is pitiful, just pitiful, which is very disappointing. The Aftertaste is more raw honey, some fruity raw honey.

I do love me some honey, but this was too much honey and not enough of the other wonderful flavors that Sprecher has. The low carbonation really killed it for me as well, not only was there no Head, but it was too thick and syrupy without all of those bubbles in it. What a shame. At least it will not be missed after those 3000 cases are gone. See how rates against other root beers.

Whistler Classic Soda Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Dec 072016

Whistler Classic Soda Root Beer Bottle One of my favorite Jethro Tull songs is The Whistler, and I always start humming it to myself when I think about this root beer. Just thought I’d throw that out there. Whistler Classic Soda is a different kind of company. They wanted to bring back the days of yesteryear when the local bottling plant would have returnable bottles you’d pay a deposit on. They think less carbonation and simpler ingredient and real sugar (is beet included?) is the way to go. I like the idea of returnable glass bottles, more environmental and stuff and other than weak carbonation the premise seems promising. They actually liked my Facebook page when they were just getting started and promised to send me some …and they never did. So I had to resort to trading with a fine fellow named Tony who is a loyal fan. The bottles are thicker glass than most which makes sense if they are reusable. It’s only 8 ounces unfortunately. Other than that, there’s nothing else to say about the plain bottle other than the cool spiral grips at the bottom.

It has a light and herbal sort of Body with a decent spiced Bite containing cinnamon. It isn’t as sweet as most brews. The Head is worse than a “two-second-Head”, though this is by design. The Aftertaste is anise and cinnamon.

Interesting and unique. But, it’s not all there for me. It needs more carbonation and a stronger flavor. It reminds me of Uncle Scott’s but less complex. I can see why they didn’t want to send me a sample. See how it rates against other root beers.

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