Aug 162017
 

IronRabbit_bigSo 2 weeks ago, while we were at the Powerhouse Brewery, my lovely wife suggested that we drive the extra 40 minutes south to hit up the Iron Rabbit restaurant to try their root beer. I had originally planned only to do Powerhouse because as much as I wanted to try all the root beer, I didn’t want to have my family stuck on such a long drive. But, she said, no regrets. With that encouragement, we were off to Olympia! The Iron Rabbit Restaurant & Bar is a very classy, yet casual, family friendly restaurant with a diverse menu featuring local flavors. They aren’t a brewery but they make their own house root beer, which is pretty unique. They are also very rabbit themed for undisclosed reasons, and there are bunny decorations all throughout the restaurant. The kids’ menu even has an activity to count the rabbits. I found 15.

The Body is rich with sassafras and honey dominating. The honey is a nice spicy honey which adds to a wonderful Bite. The Head is non-existent, however, even when poured from height, it doesn’t build or stay. The Aftertaste is more of that amazing honey.

Wow, so yummy! That honey is very nice. They said it’s a locally produced honey. I’d give this a Seal if it had any Head at all, but sadly it doesn’t. I even went back to the tap and had them pour with the glass several inches below, so the brew fell quite a distance to the bottom, yet no head would build. What a shame. But also, what a flavor. Give this even the smallest of Heads and it’d be a 4, give it a nice tall frothy one and a 4.5. The food there is amazing as well. We had their Drunken Sailor, a seafood stew with a rum sauce and the curry fish and chips and both were amazing. This place is definitely worth visiting.

Three and a half kegs




The Drunken Sailor seafood stew and the curry fish and chips. Paired with their delicious root beer is worth the drive.

The Drunken Sailor seafood stew and the curry fish and chips. Paired with their delicious root beer is worth the drive.

The taps including the root beer at the far right.

The taps including the root beer at the far right.


Aug 092017
 

Pint of Powerhouse Brewery Root BeerAs some of you may know, I’m moving soon. That’s right, I’m turning my back on this Evergreen home of mine and heading back East-ish to the land of 10,000 lakes. Also the land of pretty freaking sweet brewery root beers. So before I embark I needed to hit up the last few breweries in this area lest I be consumed by root beer regret for the rest of my days. And thus last Saturday, after much laziness and indecisiveness, I piled the family in the car and off we went on the 50 minute drive south to Puyallup to the Powerhouse Brewery. This has been the one I’ve wanted to try the most around here. It’s built in an old Puget Power brick substation and is decorated with insulators and other power systems equipment. This is essentially the perfect place for a power engineer/root beer reviewer (of which there are not many I’m sure). So how is this perfect for me brew?

The Body is sweet with a fruity tinge, accented by a some vanilla and a little dark licorice. It’s rather bland though. The Bite is pretty mild and lacking in both spice and carbonation. There isn’t much Head either. The Aftertaste is faint licorice but it isn’t strong.

Oh what a shame! It’s bland and fruity-ish and altogether not something I’d like to go and drink on a regular basis or ever for that matter. I get that a lot around here, unfortunately. I ordered some wings to go with the root beer and they were pretty good. The place is worth a visit for sure, but not for the root beer.

2 out of 5 root beer kegs




The Powerhouse Brewery.

The Powerhouse Brewery.

Some of the inside decor.

Some of the inside decor.

More of the decor.

More of the decor.

A cool display with old power engineering books.

A cool display with old power engineering books.

A cool Jacob's ladder that would turn on periodically.

A cool Jacob’s ladder that would turn on periodically.

Aug 022017
 

Rollie's Premium Style Root Beer BottleThis is the first root beer that I’ve had that warns not to give to children under 1 year of age. I mean, giving babies soda probably isn’t ever a good idea, but this uses pure honey, and so they put the warning on it. I imagine they’ve never boiled it or else the botulism spores would probably be dead right? Wouldn’t the carbonation also take care of the bacteria? Either way, better safe than sorry I suppose. Rollie’s comes from the Mt. Tom Beverage Co. Which is a division of the Paper City Brewing Company. I’d been angling for this one for awhile and they finally came through and sent me a bottle. In addition to that infant sickening honey, they use pure maple syrup and cane sugar to sweeten so I had very high hopes going into this.

The Body has a strong licorice flavor with some maple and honey mixed in. It’s not super sweet and has a dark profile with fruity undertones. There’s not much Bite at all but it isn’t a smooth brew by any means. The Head is nice and tall with good staying power. The Aftertaste is sticky licorice with some hints of maple and vanilla.

This is unique but it’s off, sadly. Maybe it’s there’s some anticipointment from what I was hoping it would be based on what the label boasts, but also it’s not made like a maple-y creamy root beer, but a honey, maple dark root beer which I don’t think quite works. See how it rates against other root beers.

2.5/5 Root Beer Kegs