I always like to find an obscure microbrewery root beer, and this brew just screams low volume microbrewery. Conversations with Mr. Glewwe himself verify the infancy and scale of the operation (as does the primative website). The label is black ink on standard 18 lb printer paper that I think they just glue (Glewwe?) on the bottle. It seems to be printed out from an old ink jet as well, classic. The bottle itself is quite different than your standard long neck root beer bottle as well and it isn’t a twist top. It seems that they pay people $1 per six pack of empties and they don’t care about color or shape so they’re doing some good recycling. What a find! The big conundrum for me is that it is called Spring Lake root beer but it is from Prior Lake, MN. So which is it? Spring or Prior, or is it the Prior Spring? Whatever, on to the important stuff.
Wow! What a full and complex Body! There’s lots of wintergreen and creamy vanilla with some birch as well that surfaces after the initial contact with the core root beer flavors. There’s also a subtle honey flavor. It isn’t super sweet though so you can relish the flavors. The Bite is pretty mild but not absent. There’s some spice kick to it but an unbelievably smooth finish from the malto-dextrin. The Head is short and medium froth. It fizzes down quickly but not too quickly to seriously hurt the rating. The Aftertaste is creamy wintergreen with hints of vanilla and honey, though, wintergreen is by far the dominant flavor.
So again, wow! What an amazing and unique brew. It’s like they took a root beer and a birch beer and combined them in a way to get the best of both. The bottle does come with a warning reading “This fine beverage could leave you wanting more. We say ‘Just ask for More.’ Drink and Enjoy” I assume that More is one of their distributors or something, but indeed, this does leave you wanting more. Lest I be all praise it could use a better head and a slightly spicier Bite. It also says “Made with the finest ingredients and patience in accordance to traditional brewing practices.” I believe them on this one. They proved it. I highly doubt that this brew will remain in obscurity much longer, and all’s the better. I look forward to the day I can just pick this up at a specialty foods store near me. See how it rates against other root beers.
This root beer sure has a busy label. I mean, there is just a lot happening there. You’ve got trees, both living and dead, some deer silhouette, mountains, a lake I think, plus all sorts of text. The actual name of the company which was done in two different fonts for some reason. The flavor of their soda, root beer in this case, which is done in yet another font. And some other stuff like “Caffeine Free,” “Made with Pure Cane Sugar” (and corn syrup as well per the ingredients), “Mange Tusen Takk,” (whatever that means (roughly: Many thousand thanks. I do know how to use Google after all)) “Spring Grove, MN,” “Classic Fountain Flavor” and the list goes on and on. About the only thing that they didn’t put on there was “The Original” which is to their credit. Mange Tusen Takk is actually pretty cool though since it’s all Norse and viking and my ancestors and whatnot. I gather that the nature scene is none other than Spring Grove itself, but I think they could have done with a little less. Though you don’t judge a book by its cover nor a root beer by its bottle so all of my ranting on that is really completely irrelevant but I just felt like saying it anyways.
So one day, a few years back, when I was visiting my parents, it was discovered that one of my younger brothers’ friends had lost his cell phone at our house. It had been over a week and the battery was dead. The last person to have seen it was my dad who had found it on the back seat of a car but he couldn’t remember what he did with it afterwards. It was getting very worrisome for the family. I suddenly leaped to my feet and exclaimed, “I’ll find the cell phone, or my name isn’t Mr. McGillicuddy!” (Which it really isn’t) I then quickly ran upstairs, took a Sharpie and drew a mustache on myself, grabbed a magnifying glass and returned to the “scene” and said that Percival C. McGillicuddy, world famous detective, would solve The Case of the Missing Cell Phone (soon to be a major motion picture based off of the children’s book based on a true story). I then melodramatically scoured the house looking for clues, making a mess, and generally entertaining the family. After about 15 minutes I actually FOUND the missing cell phone proving that indeed I was Mr. McGillicuddy. Fast forward to November. I had recently received my doctorate and was scouring the web for new root beers when what did I discover, Dr. McGillicuddy’s root beer. The six packs even had a picture of a mustached gentleman who looked for all intents and purposes like some old fashioned detective. This WAS the root beer that was made for me. It is MY root beer, since I am now Dr. McGillicuddy (ah what a few extra years of grad school do for you.) I ecstatically called my sister to tell her about it since she was one of the most entertained by Mr. McGillicuddy’s original performance. Since it was Christmas time, I figured I’d wait to acquire it until after the holidays. To my pleasant surprise, under the Christmas tree was a 12 pack of Dr. McGillicuddy’s Old-fashioned Root Beer for me Christmas morning. Yay! Even better. Free root beer. I love my family! The bottle says that it’s made with natural herbs, real birch, and imported vanilla. Sounds like a winning combination. It also says “The Original” and if you’ve followed this blog at all you know how I feel about that.