Jan 272016
 

Thomas Kemper Root Beer Bottle One of the first five gourmet root beers I ever had. I can’t remember when I first saw it show up at Safeway, but it was after I had fallen in love with Henry’s yet before I became The Root Beer Gourmet that I am. I almost never got it since I had Henry’s (spoiler alert: I liked the Henry’s more), even though this was made with pure Washington honey. With my small sample size (four or five root beers at that point) I was wondering if all quality root beers would be named after somebody. Another special thing about this brew is that it was one of four brews in my blind taste test. You see, someone at my work said that all of my root beer preference was just hot air and I really couldn’t tell the difference. So I went home got a bottle of Henry’s, a bottle of this, a plastic bottle of A&W, and Safeway Select in a can and had my family administer the blind taste test. I correctly identified each root beer, and reported back to my coworker in the sort of taunts you’d expect from a 17 year old working on a farm.

A better than average brew but nothing spectacular. Nice Body, Bite, Head, and Aftertaste. Good on everything but not great on any of them.

And the sort of writing you’d expect from one of my earliest of early reviews. It was creamy with a nice honey flavor as well, but below Henry’s in all aspects. It’s plenty good all around and doesn’t really have any thing wrong with it, so it’s fine for floats and meals and what not. It just had the misfortune of being in the shadow of something greater. See how it rates against other root beers.

Three and a half kegs




Jan 202016
 

Berghoff Root Beer Bottle I ignored this brew for quite some time, thinking that I’d already tried it and that it was no good. My parents even bought me a few bottles and I was all secretly put out since why would they buy me bad root beer. Well they were buying me new root beer. What I’d had was Berghoff Famous Root Beer which if you followed the link will notice has a different label and slightly different name. It also has different ingredients and nutritional info, which I only found out when I dug out that bottle to write the long overdue post on it. I’m sorry Mom and Dad, you knew what you were doing all along. Clearly the people at Berghoff realized they had a poor brew on their hands and set about to remedy it. Despite having reviewed 260+ root beers at this point, this still has some new ingredients including ethyl alcohol and triethyl citrate. They must not put much alcohol in it because it sells as a soda and doesn’t list an alcohol percentage on the side. I’m going with it’s perfectly legit for all ages, creeds, religions, etc.

The Body is sweet and caramely with a good sassafras flavor and some vanilla undertones. But, something seems a little out of place, some faint thing under the surface. The Bite is pretty good with some cinnamon that doesn’t overpower. The Head is adequate, medium height and frothiness. The Aftertaste is vanilla and some cinnamon and that little something-not-quite-right. That doesn’t ruin it, but it does take it down a notch.

I’m thinking that maybe the whole out of place flavor was the ethyl alcohol. But who knows, it could have been any of the “natural flavorings” or that triethyl citrate. It is better than the previous Berhoff Famous Root Beer, so there’s that. See how it rates against other root beers.

Three and a half kegs




Jan 132016
 

Pirate's Keg Root Beer Bottle I was in the Mystic Land of the North with my good friend to see an Arrogant Worms concert. If you’ve never heard of them, they are the greatest Canadian comedy folk band there is. They are probably also one of the only Canadian comedy folk bands there is, but still. While up there I discovered this jolly pirate themed brew. I say jolly because there’s a jolly pirate on the back, but you can’t see that in the picture, only the ship and map and kegs and what not. Really, he’s a cool happy pirate man. And just for you, if you click right here you can see him. You’ll also notice the whole obligatory “racinette” for the French Canadians. I actually really love everything about this label. It is one of my favorite pirate themed labels out there. Anyhow, I bought several bottles and then hauled them back to the States to give them a proper review.

This root beer has an okay Body a weak Bite and the Head is nothing special. The Aftertaste leaves something to be desired.

Talk about a disappointment. With such a cool label, I was really hoping that this could be one of the best root beers of all time. Then I could be all like “arrr, I be getting’ to me Pirate’s Keg for a fine brew matey” and make every day Talk like a Pirate Day. Alas, it’s not to be. It’s not even a root beer I’d want to drink again. And as the years have gone by, everyone else seems to feel the same way and the company has gone the way of the tall ship pirate. See how it rates against other root beers.

2.5/5 Root Beer Kegs