Uncle Scott’s Root Beer

 Bottled Root Beers  No Responses »
Aug 292012
 

I’m not sure who Scott is, or more importantly perhaps, whose uncle he is. Maybe he’s Dad’s brother. When I first heard about this I refrained from rushing a mail order since it is sold in North Carolina and I often do business trips to Charlotte. Of course, once I knew it was there I didn’t go back to Charlotte for another 8 months. I had gone to Greenville, SC and Raleigh in those 8 months but I never seemed to be able to track it down. Therefore, when I found myself going back to Charlotte, getting this was my top priority (after accomplishing the business of course). This is an all natural brew that is 98% organic. I’m not sure which 2% of it isn’t though. Interestingly, one of its ingredients is “wood extract.” Huh, that’s a new one. I would stick it on my ingredients list except I don’t know what type of wood it is. It could be something good like sassafras, birch, maple, or something else along those lines, but it could also be cedar, oak, aspen, or maybe even something deadly like hemlock. Why not sagebrush? Or mahogany? I mean, there are hundreds of different types of wood out there. Maybe it’s a different wood in each batch. Who knows. Just as important as what’s in this root beer is what isn’t. They clearly spell out that this brew does not contain “Milk, egg, fish, shellfish, wheat, soy bean or gluten.” That’s a relief. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve not been able to find a root beer that isn’t made with oysters or scallops. Or all the times I’ve tipped back a cold bottle of root beer to find that it’s really milk. If only all the root beers could be labeled thus my life would be easier for sure. So how is this woody and not clammy root beer?

It has a rather complex, but not full, Body with a prominent licorice and anise flavor as well as some cinnamon and vanilla. There’s some caramel flavor in there too. It sadly tastes a little watery, not much, but a little. There is a small cinnamon kick for a Bite which is kind of nice but still smooth, too smooth actually, as the carbonation is severely lacking. The Head is pitiful. There’s really nothing at all. Just a slight bubble up that doesn’t even cover the whole surface before it disappears. It makes the “two second Head” look good. The Aftertaste is vanilla with some cinnamon and licorice.

Interesting. The way the flavors mix you really need to sip it to see what’s going on. Every sip tastes a little different too. It is actually rather intriguing and unique, though not my favorite by any means. Also, the whole presentation needs some serious work. The Head and the carbonation level are atrocious. Even their own website, when showing a picture in a frosty mug, reveals that there is hardly a Head on this thing. I was really on the fence about how to rate this one. It has some major flaws but an interesting flavor. I think, if I were ever to go back to Charlotte, and I were at dinner, and the restaurant said they carried Uncle Scott’s, I’d get one with my meal, so it’s drinkable. See how it rates against other root beers.




Blumers Root Beer

 Bottled Root Beers  2 Responses »
Aug 152012
 

I got this on trade with another reviewer who goes by the name of Cosmo. He’s pretty much the Anti-Eric – He thinks Henry Weihard’s (pretty much my standard) is the worst root beer in the world and that IBC (his standard) is the best. To each his own I suppose but I can’t help but think that he looks down upon me for liking Henry’s so much (and IBC so little). Though I’d never spoken with him, I figured I would make a preemptive strike and out of the blue offer him one of the world’s last bottles of Thomas Kemper Purely Natural since he hadn’t reviewed it. The plan worked perfectly, though he still disagrees with me about many of my brews of choice. He sent a reciprocal offering of Blumers, though it isn’t the last in the world but that’s ok, I’ve never tried it. This stuff is made my Minhas Brewery, the same people who make The Cubby Bear, but the ingredients and nutritional info are different. It’s got a pretty cool label all frilled like a postage stamp and the bottle has and embossed ‘M’ in the glass.

It has a sweet and creamy medium Body with noticeable vanilla. Then there is a strange caramelized corn syrup herbal flavor that tastes a lot like bubble gum. The Bite is solid and spicy. The Head is short and fizzes down much too quickly, though it doesn’t leave in mere seconds so it could be worse. The Aftertaste is the bubble gum flavor that last way too long. It builds the more you drink until that is almost all you can taste. At the end of the long and gross bubble gum Aftertaste, it turns bitter.

Ugh. What a disappointment. That weird and bitter bubblegum flavor progressively overpowers everything else so the more I drink this, the less I want to keep drinking. I suppose it’s a good one to pass around amongst a group but really, a bottle by itself is not good at all. So Cosmo sent me a nasty root beer and I sent him a nasty root beer. Fair trade I suppose. See how it rates against other root beers.




Firemans Brew Root Beer

 Bottled Root Beers  No Responses »
Aug 082012
 

Firemans Brew is the creation of some fireman in LA who thought it would be cool to both make a whole line of refreshing micro-brewed drinks, made by firemen for firemen, and confuse spell checkers by not putting an apostrophe in between the ‘n’ and the ‘s’ in their company name, even though it is clearly a possessive. Well, actually I don’t know if the second was truly one of their stated objectives but they accomplished it nonetheless. Maybe they were trying to say firemen in a cooler way, like firemans, but you’d have to be an L.A. fireman to get the joke, I’m not sure. I do love the idea of a fireman root beer, because you know, things are pretty tough for firemen and they run into burning buildings and save people so they deserve a good brew to relax into after saving little Timmy and then getting the cat out of the tree and whatnot. It’s got a pretty classy look too, probably to impress the ladies, since they always go for a guy in uniform, or a root beer for that matter. I love the line “Extinguish your thirst” even if it is entirely expected in this case.

The Body is dark and a tad creamy from what seems a hint of vanilla. There seems to be some anise and wintergreen. It tastes rather generic though; I swear I’ve had numerous root beers with this same flavor repertoire. It is toned down from some of those stouts so it isn’t too bad. The Bite is decent, and the overall brew is pretty smooth. The Head is tall and pretty frothy. It fizzes down a bit quicker than I prefer but it is still good. The Aftertaste is a dark anise flavor with accents of vanilla and wintergreen.

So it seems that these firemans like stout anise-y brews. I can’t say that they’re my favorites but this one isn’t bad. I really struggled about where to rate this one. It’s a decent brew but doesn’t seem to have any really distinguishing qualities about it to boost it over the top. The nice Head though was eventually enough to push it above a 3 to a low 3.5. See how it rates against other root beers.




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