So I unexpectedly found myself in San Francisco a few weeks back to meet some people about some … important stuff … We were scheduled to meet at some Italian place called Il Fornaio. When we got to the parking lot (which had individually metered spaces which only took quarters) the first thing that I noticed was across the street was the Steelhead Brewery. Dang, why couldn’t we have scheduled lunch there? I love Steelhead Root Beer. But after our lunch we were meeting someone else and I knew just the place to do it. When we got there I ordered a root beer and as I drank it I realized that it was quite different than the bottled stuff. The menu even confirmed it. I ordered another one and commenced with the review.
The Body is dark and spicy with an anise and wintergreen flavor. There’s not too much anise, thankfully. The Bite lives up to its name though it has a nice smooth finish. The Head is nice and tall and fizzes away at a medium. The Aftertaste more licorice and a bit of wintergreen and cloves.
This is probably my favorite take on this genre of dark and spicy brews, but the anise flavor was just a little too strong for me in the second glass. I wanted a third glass to really figure out what rating to give it, but the waiter never came back to ask if I wanted anything else, so I’ll just go with the lower review of what I was thinking of. This is a pretty good brew by all accounts, but not as good as their bottled recipe.
The view from the parking lot.
The menu, proving this to be a different recipe than the bottled brew.
This one was tricky to track down. It is close, brewed by Phillips Soda Works in Victoria, BC, but yet they wouldn’t mail order and don’t sell anywhere stateside. I also utterly failed to find it when I was in Vancouver. When a friend of mine posted on Facebook that he was heading for a weekend in Victoria I peppered him with requests to bring me back some. Then he posted a picture of two closed and one open bottle and tagged me on. What a relief. Thanks Jaron you’re awesome. I had to go pick it up from him in Seattle. As he was working he said he’d leave it on the front porch in a paper bag. I showed up and much to my dismay, there was a large husky and a black lab inside the fence. I may have hinted at it before, but I am quite scared of dogs and the thought of getting past two of them, on their enclosed turf was utterly terrifying. However, my desire for a new root beer trumps all it seems, and I successfully made it in and back quite alive, calmingly saying “nice doggy” in the most meek and friendly voice possible. When I look at the label of this brew, all I want to do is sing “Intergalactic planetary, planetary intergalactic … ” over and over and over again. Good job Captain Electro. It has an impressive array of natural herbs and spices including black pepper, a new one for my 
Last week I was in Charlotte again on business. It was a rather unexpected business trip and as such there were no downtown hotels. We usually get a hotel in Uptown and walk to the meetings. Instead we rented a car. This got me thinking that maybe there was a brewery out further that had some root beer. I searched and the only clue I could find was a Yelp review of Heist Brewery mentioning they had a sarsaparilla root beer. The website was not helpful in confirming the existence of the brew, nor was their menu. Nevertheless, when the boss, who was driving said that he really needed a beer, I suggested we try Heist. When got there the restaurant had closed and only the taproom/bar was open. I asked if they had root beer and they said they did. I asked them the name and they said Sarsaparilla Root Beer. I asked if they had a pen and I grabbed a little paper take home menu. Thankfully my phone has a decent camera.
