Bottled Root Beers – Page 101 – Eric’s Gourmet Root Beer Blog

Towne Club Root Beer

Mar 062013

Another root beer found recently at The Root Beer Store. This one has a unique bottle shape with a label that doesn’t give me much to write about other than the fact that they refuse to capitalize any letters for reasons unknown. It kind of reminds me of a certain root beer reviewer. Nevertheless, I will not fall for their poor grammar and you can see that I’ve capitalized their name in the title of this post. Other than that, I like the label, unnecessary ‘e’ and all. It seems that this soda is popular in the poorer neighborhoods of Detroit, a.k.a ALL neighborhoods of Detroit, where the company started in the mid 1960s. It is impressive that though their sales declined dramatically in the 1980s, they never quit so this has been around continuously since then.

It has a sweet medium Body where the generic root beer flavor slowly morphs into tasting like Red Vines. It is most curious. There is a little Bite, though it’s hardly worth mentioning. The Head is medium height but fizzes down quickly. The Aftertaste is a light Red Vines flavor.

Huh, Red Vines root beer. I can honestly say that I’ve never encountered that before. I’m not sure if this should be categorized with other candy flavored root beers (the butterscotch ones) or if it’s just a byproduct of their ingredients. Maybe when they were formulating it someone told them that you put licorice in root beer and they went to the store but bought red licorice by mistake and they just went with it. Whatever the reason, it’s actually pretty decent and not too far outside of the “normal” root beer spectrum. I’d have it again, occasionally. See how it rates against other root beers.

Anchor Ginger Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Feb 272013

Anchor Root Beer Bottle Arr matey, another sailing themed root beer. But this is beyond the standard pirate root beers, of which there are many, this is a “tribute to all the Sea Dogs and Scallywags looking for adventure on the seas.” I doubt there are many cooler flavor texts on root beer bottles. The label is one of the best mixes of classy and awesome imaginable. It’s not too busy. A large anchor with a schooner watermark in the background with everything centered around the anchor. It’s also nice to find a ginger root beer as I like to see some innovation in the root beer world. All in all this has the makings of greatness, and it doesn’t disappoint.

The Body starts out with a full ginger flavor like a good ginger ale. This masks out all other flavors initially. The ginger slowly gives way to a nice creamy root beer flavor that is very nice. The Bite is strong from the ginger and an average carbonation fizz, but doesn’t burn by any means and actually goes down rather smooth in the end. The Head is terrible, sadly. It’s barely better than the Two Second Head, probably more like a five second Head. Tragic. The Aftertaste is a caramely vanilla flavor with ginger hints that lasts the right amount of time.

This is an excellent tasting brew. I like a good ginger ale and love the fact that they managed to successfully incorporate that strong ginger flavor without losing any of the good root beer-ness, which is often a problem with the ‘flavored’ root beer varieties. Sadly, the Head is terrible. It’s bad enough to keep it from getting a Seal of Approval, which is really a shame. But it will be a good brew to take on your next nautical voyage to wash down the catch of the day. See how it rates against other root beers.

Bulldog Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers 2 Responses »

Feb 202013

Bulldog Root Beer Bottle This isn’t your regular gourmet root beer. It’s one of those few that are actually brewed using the highest quality ingredients (according to their site) such as cane sugar, real vanilla, and honey. The label itself is rather classy but falls victim to far too many root beer cliches. First is the dogs. So many root beers with dogs on the label. This one takes it a bit further since the entire brewery is named after a dog. The two dogs do have names, Barley and Hops, but so do most of the other dog root beers. Also, Bulldog sports “The Original”, a tag line whose disappearance from labels would bring nothing but immense joy, along with “Handcrafted” which isn’t nearly as overused but still too prevalent. Their bold “Unleash the Taste” (pun I’m sure is intended), though, is a nice and very appropriate slogan.

The Body is wonderful! Lots of honey, vanilla, and the other essential flavors. Sweet and creamy, the kind of flavor you could just snuggle up to if that were possible. The Bite is not much but sufficient. The whole thing has a very rich and smooth mouth feel from the maltodextrin. The Head is frothy but not much, not flat by any means just less than is desirable. The Aftertaste is of vanilla and honey and very pleasing though a little sticky.

When I took the first drink I exclaimed “Oh wow!” This is one of the best tasting root beers that I have ever had the pleasure to drink. “Unleash the Taste” indeed! I don’t care what their label is like, I’ll drink this stuff whenever I can get it. It’s really a shame about that Head, if it were tall and extra frothy this may have made it into the highest echelon of root beer rankings. However, I am still very proud to award it my Seal of Approval. See how it rates against other root beers.

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