This root beer comes from the Yellowstone Valley Brewing Company in Montana. For those of you who don’t know, a Woolly Bugger is a fly used in fly fishing. It’s a wet fly, which means it goes under the water as opposed to a dry fly which floats on top. I did try my hand at fly fishing for a few years so I’ve used one of these. Now the name is slightly different but based on the picture you can tell that’s what they’re going for. This makes it the second fishing themed root beer I’ve seen. There’s also some cow girl riding the fly with the caption “Wild Fly Rider” I think this is the first root beer to feature a busty cow girl on it that I’ve had. There are several other curiosities about their label. It says Grand Cru, which is a wine classification for superior quality. Then on the side of the label it reads “Guaranteed to Wooley Your Bugger and Then Some. The Black Elixir of the Yellowstone. Hardy Drink For Hardy Souls! THE Rocky Mountain Root Beer.” It’s like they couldn’t decide one what they wanted their tagline to be so they went with all of the suggestions. I have no idea what the first one is even supposed to mean. The last one will probably raise objections from the Rocky Mountain Root Beer people. The third line is, well, okay, whatever, and the second one makes me think it’s going to have a lot of licorice in it.
The Body is minty and I want to say birchy. There’s a little anise as well. There’s a strong wintergreen Bite but that’s it. The Head is short yet foamy. The Aftertaste is wintergreen and birch that’s a tad bitter.
This tastes more like a birch beer to me, though I can’t claim to be an expert on them, I’ve had several and they remind me of this. It also tastes similar to Spring Lake Root Beer with their birch beer extracts. But unlike some of the birch root beers, this one really lacks the vanilla, the sassafras, and the spice flavors. It still passes as a decent root beer though. See how it rates against other root beers.
The third root beer from the mini mart across the street from Safeco Field in 1998 that doesn’t actually exist anymore sadly. This was made by the Old Dominion Brewing Company, before it was bought and its original location was torn down. So it’s from the old Old Dominion Brewing Company. This is made with Virginia honey which must be better than regular honey or they wouldn’t make such a point about it. I love a root beer with honey. Sadly the label doesn’t give me much to go on about. It’s got some lines going out like a fan, and it’s got its name. No conundrums or cliches or ridiculousness. Just plain classy gourmet root beer. No real special story about how I found it either, you’ve heard that before. So I guess on to the review I wrote 17 years ago.
The final discontinued root beer obtained through trading with Jon. That man is amazing. To have given me a second chance to do what I missed doing when I should. It’s like those Sci-Fi episodes where some wormhole/spell/secret technology turns back the clock so the hero can redo the failed mission and save the day. Well Jon is my wormhole. And I am grateful. This brew has a name that is both annoying and puzzling. Another ‘!’ in a name? And what does that even mean? There’s some nuns singing. I’m not Catholic, but I’m pretty sure nuns don’t say “Oop!” Interestingly, the nuns appear to be singing that there’s “not a speck of juice in [the Oop! Juice]” That is comforting. Most of the root beers with juice in them have not been good. The bottle also asks you to write a song about how drinking this makes you feel and send it to them. An odd request indeed.
