Root Beer Reviews – Page 70 – Eric’s Gourmet Root Beer Blog

Homer Soda’s Maple Syrup Root Beer

Dec 282016

Homer Soda's Maple Syrup Root Beer Bottle Homer is a small farm town in Illinois. The soda company that bears its name is family owned and operated. They sell some of there own flavors and bottle other flavors. This root beer came about one day when the family went to the Champaign County Forest Preserve and learned how to make maple syrup. They were so excited they went home to make their own syrup, presumably from their own sugar maple trees. They liked their syrup so much that they wanted to see how it tasted in a root beer, and thus the Maple Syrup Root Beer was born. They even donate a portion of the sales of each bottle back to the CCFP as a thanks for the inspiration, which is always nice to see.

The Body is dominated by a rich maple flavor that’s accented by creamy vanilla all around a standard root beer flavored core. It’s nice to see they didn’t skimp on the root beer, just added a lot of maple syrup. The Bite is adequate but nothing is noteworthy of it. The brew itself isn’t overly smooth. The Head is medium-tall but fizzes down quicker than I prefer. The Aftertaste is luscious maple syrup and vanilla.

I love maple and vanilla. This is a good brew. It reminds me of that original Tommyknocker which had maple syrup as well. Though this isn’t as hearty, it’s definitely one I’m going to keep in stock. See how it rates against other root beers.

Geaux Brewing Root Beer

Draft and Keg Root Beers No Responses »

Dec 242016

A pint of Geaux Brewing Root Beer So my good buddy from the Root Beer Trackers decided he was going to take a holiday root beer road trip to my neck of the woods. In preparation he called 260+ breweries throughout the state to see if they had root beer. Now that’s devotion, and also really ambitious. I told him if he found a new one for me one close by that I’d meet him there and we could try it together. And he found Geaux Brewing. Just 15 minutes south of me in Bellevue! It’s a new brewery, only opening three years ago, after I’d made a thorough sweep of the area, so it was an excusable oversight on my part. The Brewery itself is very small and is an island of devotion to the New Orleans Saints. In Seahawks territory. That’s a bold move, and also why it’s called Geaux as in ‘Geaux Saints’ which I understand is all trying be look French and all, but because I actually speak French, I find kind of annoying. But the people there were all very friendly and they even have their own canning machine to sell you 24 ounce cans because they don’t do growlers for some reason. It was extra cool to meet another reviewer and share a pint, but the root beer itself, well…

The Body is light and not very sweet. There’s a little wintergreen in there and some standard root beer flavors. The Bite is very mild, almost no spices at all. The Head is completely non-existent, which is very depressing. The Aftertaste is light wintergreen that finishes a tad sour.

So, yeah, um, not really very good. I mean, it’s not horrible or gag inducing but definitely not something I’d ever go drink again. Which I guess is good as I won’t have to awkwardly go into an enclave of Saints fans on game day I suppose. Oh well, as I told the Tracker, it’s the bad root beers that help us truly appreciate the good ones.

2.5/5 Root Beer Kegs

The inside of the tap room with some of its Saints paraphernalia.

The taps and the canning machine.

Dunsmuir Brewery Works Root Beer

Growler Root Beers No Responses »

Dec 212016

Dunsmuir Brewery Works Root Beer Growler Another growler review, finally! I can hear you all saying that. Yes, I know, I’ve neglected getting growlers because it’s much more fun to just buy it on tap, but with an estimated 2,000 different breweries that make root beer across this great land of ours (my estimate, not even counting Canadia), unless I suddenly win a lottery that I haven’t entered, or have some rich relative who I am not aware I have die and bequeath me a fortune, traveling all over the place getting to them is just not gonna happen. Maybe I could start a GoFundMe … you’d all send me money so I can travel around right? Right? Yeah right. So I’ll have to start trading for growlers. Thankfully I have friends in many places, like The Root Beer Trackers who hit up a lot of different places, like the Dunsmuir Brewery Works in Dunsmuir, CA. The irony is that I actually drove past Dunsmuir this past summer on my my amazing Tesla Gigafactory Root Beer Road Trip, but I didn’t check if there was anything there. I’m pretty sure my friends were getting tired of stopping though, so it’s probably for the best. This brewery is a newer one, only opening in 2009 in a town of less than 2,000 people. So massive props for making a root beer as well.

The Body is not very sweet and despite a nice initial contact, is rather empty and bitter. There is a lot of wintergreen and clove in there. The clove adds to the Bite, which is solid and spicy and wonderful. The Aftertaste, however, is bitter and empty.

I don’t really like this at all. I wish I did, but after the initial wonderful Bite, this brew falls flat on its face by being bitter and empty. Good thing I didn’t get my Tesla caravan to stop for it, they wouldn’t have been happy.

2 out of 5 root beer kegs

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