First of all, I don’t know why they put a ‘-‘ in between ‘root’ and ‘beer’ on their label. They don’t hyphenate it on their website so I’m going to guess that they’re trolling grammar Nazis with the label. Also, it is interesting to find an old time root beer since most often people say their brew is old fashioned. I wonder if anyone will ever make a new time or a new fashioned (latest fashion?) root beer. Their website is thick with the standard old fashioned rhetoric even throwing in mention to grandpa. Since every old fashioned root beer seems to be very different, I’m going to venture that each brew is talking about a different grandpa. They also claim that “Millstream Old Time Root Beer is brewed to satisfy the most discriminating root beer connoisseur” which I am so let’s see.
The Body is very light with the standard root beer flavors. It’s a little creamy as well; sort of your standard creamy root beer type. The Bite is spicy and sharp. It’s very nice but a little too sharp for my tastes but that spicy is very nice. The Head is nice. It is frothy, medium height, and lasts awhile. The Aftertaste is a letdown. There’s the tiniest waft of vanilla that disappears without a trace followed by a hint of citric acid sour and then that’s it.
Huh. That doesn’t seem to have “lots of aroma and plenty of good, old-fashioned taste.” Maybe they’re talking about their other root beer, the non-hyphenated one. Who knows. Overall it’s an ok brew but there’s really nothing special about it and it is lacking in several areas. The most discriminating root beer connoisseur has sadly been left unsatisfied. See how it rates against other root beers.
It’s nice to see that even the tiny state of Rhode Island can get their own brand of root beer, and an Olde one at that, even if it is made by Empire Bottling Works. In fact they’re so olde they don’t even have a website. They’re so olde that their New England recipe is just old in comparison. They’re so olde that their label looks as though it’s as olde as the company, or that they spilled some root beer on it. And they’re so olde that they don’t even care. They don’t have to, because once you become so old that you’re olde, you’ve moved beyond such things.
