A week or so ago found me in Denver because, electric vehicles (EVs). I’m sure it’s no coincidence that those also happen to be my initials, but rather a higher power at work. Anyway, I was there and was talking EVs with other EV experts doing EV things because we’re going to change the way you drive and save the world and what not. When all was said and done I found myself with a rental car (non-EV sadly) and four hours before I needed to be at the airport. Since all of my expenses were being reimbursed (and even if they weren’t) I decided to go a questing for brau! I quickly searched Google maps and found Wyncoop Brewing Company. I called and when they said they had their own house root beer I jumped in the car, set the GPS, and was off! It was only when I arrived in downtown and saw the multitudes of Rockies fans heading to the nearby stadium that I realized I may be in for some problems. Parking problems. The brewery doesn’t have its own lot and everything was labeled as event parking at a flat $25. I finally found a garage a few blocks away with the much more reasonable $2 every 15 minutes. I decided to skip the meal at that price, and ran to try the root beer.
The Body is very weak, slightly sour, and fruity. There’s a nice aroma like it would be a full creamy root beer, but when you drink it’s airy if that makes sense. The Bite is rather non-existent, though it is very smooth. The Head is a decent height with good staying power. The Aftertaste has the slightest hints of caramel and vanilla, like the ghost of a delicious creamy root beer.
So I’m not sure what was going on, but they brewed one terrible brew. Maybe it was the high altitude affecting my taste buds, but despite smelling good, it had no depth and was watery. Definitely glad I didn’t stick around. Though it will always bother me a bit that I didn’t get to try any of their food, the parking was too much, the root beer too bad, and there were other root beers to try.
The Wyncoop Brewing Company Taps. Notice the Root Beer at the back.
Inside the Wyncoop Brewing Company. I’m sure there is some significance to the bronze gorilla.
One day I decided to expand my Google Maps brewery searches of the region to a larger radius to see just what I could find. I went to the home page of Roslyn Brewing Company and saw that they have a root beer, No. 9 Root Beer to be exact. I was both elated and shocked. Roslyn is five minutes off of the freeway on the way to my parents’ house. I’ve driven past there dozens of times in the past few years and never knew there was gourmet root beer just waiting for me to try. And of course it would be another five months or so before I went to visit my parents again so I couldn’t try it right away. Roslyn itself is a tiny little town that used to be a coal mining town, a rarity in Washington State. It’s all old fashioned looking and their brewery’s taproom only has six stools. Since no minors (only miners?) are permitted, I had to leave the kids outside with a promise that I’d bring the root beer out to them after my review. Sadly this has nothing to do with the Beatles, but rather is named after coal mine No. 9 which supplied coal to the trains going over Snoqualmie Pass.
I was trawling through Google Maps trying to find breweries in the greater Puget Sound area and I discovered that BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse not only had their own draft root beer, but a location in Redmond where I live. How’d I miss that? I’ve been gallivanting across the nation in search new brews and there was one right in my own backyard? In my defense, it only opened a few months before I discovered it so it’s not like I missed it for that long. It was only two weeks after the discovery that I got the whole family there for dinner on a Saturday night. The place was very, very crowded and busy. I hoped it was worth the wait. 
