So my family has been on vacation in Europe for the past month, leaving me with lots of free time on the weekends to chase down root beers, and Labor Day was no exception, so I set out to Stillwater, a quaint little town on the border with Wisconsin (which I’ve yet to set foot in). There resides the Lift Bridge Brewery, named after the lift bridge on the St. Croix River. Lift Bridge actually cans their root beer, and they can be found all around the Minneapolis area. But I don’t drink root beer from cans, so my only way to try it was to go straight to the source, which I did because it was Labor Day and only a 45 minute drive away.
The Body is very minty with a little vanilla. It isn’t overly sweet, but it isn’t lacking either. It does feel a little hollow, like it needs more sassafras. The Bite is harsh and sharp. There’s a ton of carbonation and some spices. It is too harsh in my opinion. The Head is medium tall with a good foaminess that lasts. The Aftertaste is a strong wintergreen flavor that ends a little bitter. It reminds of those wintergreen Lifesavers.
This is solid, but lacking. There really isn’t anything bad about it, it just needs a few tweaks to make it top notch. If you’re in the area, check it out. The town of Stillwater is worth the walk around, and even climb those downtown stairs, just don’t run up the stairs two steps at a time, my legs are still sore.
The Lift Bridge Brewery. This picture was taken from inside the taproom looking through the brewery door.
This past Saturday was a beautiful day. With little pressing errands to do, I decided to head out to one of the local Minneapolis area breweries to get some root beer. I chose LynLake Brewery because it seemed to be in biking distance, only an hour and 20 minutes each way, or 28 miles round trip, which is actually further then I’ve ever biked before in a single day. But as I said the weather was wonderful and I figured why not. It turned out to be a perfect day for a ride and there was beautiful scenery everywhere and lots of lakes and things and yeah, Minneapolis is a pretty city on a bike. And then it turns out the LynLake Brewery, in Uptown, is actually all bike themed on the inside (pictures below) and a stop on some Minneapolis bike brewery tours, so it really was the correct mode of transportation. After a bit of repose and a glass of water I set down to business.
Last week I was in sunny hot Phoenix for sales demos with some Phoenix companies. It was my very first time there (as with most of these trips of mine) and the thing I was amazed the most by were those saguaro cacti (catuses?). I’ve only really ever seen them in movies, and suddenly they were everywhere, just like in the old Western movies. What fun! But wait there’s more to this trip then just DERMS and cacti (cactuseses?). There was root beer! Several places actually showed up on my initial search, but time was limited (as was the patients of my coworkers I imagine), so I could only hit up one. I chose Sunup Brewing Co, the makers of many a brew and mead and Logan’s Root Beer. I don’t know why it’s called Logan’s, I didn’t ask and their website is devoid of any mention. I’ll postulate that Logan is some teetotaler or child who either made or inspired the creation of the brew. Either that or they just love Hugh Jackman movies… Anyhow, the root beer!
