My son, like most little boys, loves trains. This matters because Snoqualmie, WA has a historic train museum that includes a train ride from the historic depot. We had always thought it would be fun to take him there since we always drive through Snoqualmie on the way to my parents house. Then, I discovered Snoqualmie had a brewery that makes their own root beer, and only a block away from the museum. We quickly planned a family outing to see trains and drink root beer. The night before we went, we discovered that it was “A day with Thomas” at the museum, featuring a life sized Thomas the Tank Engine that would pull the train ride instead of the normal engine. Of course it was much more expensive (and a shorter ride) but with all of the additional events that were happening we were glad we went then. After a whole morning of riding trains, looking at trains, taking pictures of trains, and playing with model trains, we went to the brewery for lunch. Of course, I had to start by reviewing their root beer.
It has a sweet and complex Body. The core flavors taste like those generic root beer barrel candies with a lot of wintergreen and clove. It isn’t really creamy at all, but rather, sharp and spicy. The Bite is pretty strong from all of the spices but not harsh from carbonation. It’s still a little more than I prefer though. The Head is nice, medium height and very frothy. It lasts and lasts (at least when you ask them to pour it so it has a Head). The Aftertaste is wintergreen with some clove accents that lingers the right amount of time.
This is a pretty decent brew, but doesn’t really move me at all. While it has a nice complex flavor, it is more sharp than rich and I prefer a rich smooth flavor. There’s nothing unpleasant about it though, so I give it a 3 1/2 kegs, with the nice Head just pushing it over from a 3. So don’t go just to drink it, but it’ll go well with your meal. Just don’t get their pizza, while it’s loaded with toppings, it still tastes pretty bland. Their gumbo, however, is a different story.
When I first learned about this one I was in the process of seeking out new brews to try so I immediately sent them an email to see if they would mail order it. They said they couldn’t since they didn’t bottle much and it had to be refrigerated at all times. This was rather saddening but I figured if I ever go to Brooklyn, I’d look them up. A few days later I received a root beer shipment (part of a trade) from the one and only 
Way back in the fall of 2003, I had just arrived at BYU to restart my undergrad career. I’d been off of my mission for a mere six months but I’d jumped back into root beer reviewing with a tenacity after two years of being completely dry (there was no gourmet root beer in Madagascar nor South Africa that I could find). On one of my first days in Provo, I went with my sister to the BYU creamery to get some of their amazing “squeaky cheese”, which is just a high quality cheddar cheese curd but it squeaks when you eat it so everyone calls it squeaky cheese. While I was there I of course checked for root beer and found a six-pack of Barrel Brothers. Excellent, more root beer for me. The label is interesting to be sure, two guys without necks wearing barrels with mugs of root beer. It’s like they’re depression era homeless people who found some root beer or something. And they also don’t have necks. That really bothers me. The other interesting tidbit on the label is that it is “brewed with both vitamin C & calcium” I’m not sure if they were setting out to make a root beer that sub for your morning glass of OJ or if their formula just happened to call for those ingredients and the marketing department (the thinner of the neck-less brothers perhaps?) decided they could pitch that as a benefit or something.