I was visiting Salt Lake City to give a presentation on electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid and I had to drop by and check out the local root beer stand. Started in 1959 it was originally a Hires Drive-in, but after the owner died, they were forced to change the name so they added Big H to it since he only had a verbal agreement with Hires to use the name which wasn’t enforceable after none of the people involved in said verbal agreement were alive. Everything else is identical to how it was, including the root beer, so this is really one of the few Hires root beer stands left in the US. They have three in the area. Interestingly, they also make their own root beer concentrate, Hires Big H, which is a different recipe. Why they don’t sell both side by side is beyond me but whatever. It is the classic 1950’s diner with car service still available. They ask you to have your lights on if you’d like car service in the dedicated parking area. They serve the standard diner foods with signature burgers and a secret fry sauce. It’s pretty cool.
The Body is spicy and caramely with mild licorice hints. It isn’t very creamy, more of a dark flavor, but it isn’t overly strong so it’s quite refreshing. There’s an ok Bite from spices and carbonation. The Head is very tall when you ask for it that way but it fizzes down a little quicker than I prefer. The Aftertaste is a light spicy caramel with the fainest licorice tint to it. I really wish the whole thing were stronger.
This is a solid and refreshing brew but it doesn’t really have anything extra special to move me, and it’s a little weak for my tastes. But it’s good to get some Hires since my petition to get them to bottle it seems in vain. It does go well with their food. The fry sauce is yummy and their pastrami burger was amazing. The extra tall Head pushes it barely in to 3.5 territory, so it’ll probably be the low cutoff for that. The service was extra nice too, so I do recommend dropping by if you’re in the region.
The Hires Big H Root Beer Stand in Salt Lake City
The inside of the diner
“Pastrami H” burger with fries and their secret fry sauce
First of all, I don’t know why they put a ‘-‘ in between ‘root’ and ‘beer’ on their label. They don’t hyphenate it on their website so I’m going to guess that they’re trolling grammar Nazis with the label. Also, it is interesting to find an old time root beer since most often people say their brew is old fashioned. I wonder if anyone will ever make a new time or a new fashioned (latest fashion?) root beer. Their website is thick with the standard old fashioned rhetoric even throwing in mention to grandpa. Since every old fashioned root beer seems to be very different, I’m going to venture that each brew is talking about a different grandpa. They also claim that “Millstream Old Time Root Beer is brewed to satisfy the most discriminating root beer connoisseur” which I am so let’s see.
I know everyone’s been dying for me to do another growler root beer review. It’s been over a year and I always am just picking them up off the tap instead of taking them home for later, but finally your wait is over. I’ve known about Rogue for awhile and was even all set to go to a brewhouse that served it but I ended up winning those tickets to the Silver Tips so I went to Scuttlebutt instead. Then 
