Check out this cool stubby bottle. I haven’t had many root beers in little stubby bottles like this. Maybe only twice before. I was very fortunate that a storied root beer collector and fan by the name of Vince lives close to the Peace Tree Brewery in Iowa and was willing to trade with me. In addition to it’s cool stubby little bottle, it’s got a pretty neat label. With lots of shades of brown and a picture of an old school jug that almost makes the root beer seem to come from such a jug. That’s probably what they were going for, and it works. It’s also handcrafted. Because aren’t they all. I’ll give a whole 1 keg bonus to the rating of the first brand to put “Machine Crafted” or “Foot Crafted” on their label. This is also made with beet sugar rather than cane.
It has a full and rich body with dark rooty flavor accented by a little bit of vanilla. It isn’t a creamy vanilla. The Bite is sort of a baking soda-ish, sour burn which I don’t enjoy at all. The Head is tall and sudsy with decent staying power. The Aftertaste is sassafras and vanilla.
This is pretty good, but the strange Bite kind of ruins it for me. I would love to like this more, since it’s always fun to give a seal of approval to a unique looking root beer, but alas, I cannot. It’s still worth drinking if you happen to be in the area. See how it rates against other root beers.
Another root beer I didn’t think I’d ever try. That was because when I learned about it and emailed the company inquiring, they said that they weren’t producing it in glass anymore. But then I guess the powers that be persuaded them otherwise (being shunned by me is very convincing I’d imagine) and they brought it back. Another reviewer, 
So last weekend my family and I went up to Bellingham for an IEEE PES event at the Spark Museum of Electrical Invention. It was really cool (for a nerdy engineer like myself). And I even won a raffle to get to stand in a big Faraday cage and get blasted by a 4,000,000 V Tesla coil. Fun times. And wouldn’t you know, there’s another brewery in Bellingham that makes their own root beer. Aslan Brewing Company was conceived in 2012 and became a full brewpub a year later in 2013. Their philosophy is on locally sourced and organic ingredients with minimal environmental impact. They make a ginger beer along with Rachelle’s Root Beer. I should have asked who Rachelle is because the website says nothing about her but she is listed on the menu so I’ve dutifully named this after her. When I showed up with my family, everyone was hungry and there was a long wait. The place was crowded and it was pouring rain. I decided to just get a pint of this for review and then go somewhere a bit quieter for dinner. 
