Eric’s Gourmet Root Beer Blog – Page 162 – The blog of the gourmet root beer site.

Ozark Mountain Bottleworks Root Beer

Apr 032013

A newcomer to the world of gourmet root beer, Ozark Mountain Bottling works was founded just 4 years ago in 2009 in Branson, MO. If you go to their website you’ll see that they have five different flavors of soda, each with a different color label. The orange soda has an orange label, the grape’s is purple, the lemonade’s is pink (pink lemonade), and as you can see the root beer corresponds with this color scheme and is green, wait, what? Why is the root beer label green? Is does seem to break the pattern unless the root beer itself is green (which it isn’t). I can see no reason to have the root beer label green and not brown. I’ll just imagine that someone there was dying to have a green label but their spinach soda was shot down by the board. Since they didn’t want to hurt his feelings too bad they decided to put a green label on the root beer for him. They say on the site that they use 100% pure cane sugar and their brew is “designed to highlight the classic flavors of Root Beer and Sarsaparilla to create a unique taste unlike anything else on the market.”

The Body is minty and creamy complimenting a full sassafras flavor. The vanilla hints give it a nice rich texture and flavor. The Bite is subtle; just enough to let you know it’s there but not too much. The Head is huge and very frothy! It rivals the other top root beer Heads out there. It lasts a long time as well. The Aftertaste is rich wintergreen and vanilla with the slightest accents of caramel.

Yum, yum, yum! I love this root beer. It reminds me a lot of River City with that creamy minty goodness. Maybe they have a green label because of all the mint. Whatever the reason, I wish I had ordered more. See how it rates against other root beers.

Maine Root Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers 3 Responses »

Mar 272013

Maine Root Root Beer Bottle First off this has one of the most annoying names of any root beer I know. The company’s name is Maine Root, which will work well with any flavor other than root beer. While one could just chalk this up to an oversight on their part, Root Beer was the first flavor they offered. Clearly, with their attention on all natural, organic, free trade, and free-range (I’ll get to that later), they just couldn’t be bothered by not making their root beer redundant. It’s a forgivable offense, but will probably always keep them in the top 5 annoying root beer names (coming soon). Secondly, they have the amusing gimmick of Free-range Root Beer. That calls for all natural root beers that live (and are perhaps captured) in the wild. One of their stated goals is to fight corporate root beer, which I’ve seen before from that Flathead Lake Monster swill, but these people have a much better strategy.

The Body is crisp and well balanced. It is creamy with wintergreen surfacing after the initial contact. The Head is full and frothy. It lingers. It is less than the epic Head of a Henry’s, but sufficient for the most adamant connoisseur. There isn’t really much Bite. Though I like it smooth, some spices could improve it a bit. The Aftertaste is a creamy vanilla with hints of wintergreen.

This is a very delicious and well crafted brew. Overall it has all of the right flavors in the right proportions. It is very clean and crisp on account of the cane sugar and no preservatives. The lack of preservatives is wonderful as the slight soapiness or fruitiness that accompanies sodium benzoate or citric acid is gone, so all of the focus is on the wonderful mix of root beer goodness. They may be on to something with that whole Free-range business. I must say that this is the best all natural root beer I’ve had so far. The only drawback is the almost complete lack of bite and that something extra, like honey or cinnamon, to really seal the deal, however, I am still proud to give this root beer my Seal of Approval. See how it rates against other root beers.

Gene Autry Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Mar 202013

Gene Autry Root Beer Bottle Inspired by the success (or jealous of it) of Judge Wapner Root Beer, Gene Autry, or his foundation or fans or someone (since Gene’s dead), decided that they wanted to get a piece of that action and hence Gene Autry Root Beer. And why not? Root beer is the all American drink and Gene Autry was arguably one of the most all Americans that has ever been produced. A singing cowboy actor who wrote famous Christmas songs, owned rodeo stocks and part of a baseball team, and flew dangerous missions as a pilot in WWII. With a resume like that the biggest question is why it took so long for him to get his own root beer, especially when you consider his TV show’s appeal among children? Interestingly, both Gene Autry and Judge Wapner root beers are produced by Rocket Fizz so it seems that they’re competing against themselves for market share in the celebrity root beer market. I’m not sure if I hope that the trend of celebrity root beers ends here or not. On the one hand some people are so epic that there is no question they deserve a brew named after them, on the other hand, this could get way out of control where you could get a Kardashian family six pack with each being a different flavor of root beer. More root beers for me to review I suppose.

The Body is very light and mild. Vanilla and wintergreen surface after a few seconds and add some much needed flavor to it. It has a very harsh Bite from the carbonation and citric acid that gives way to a prickly burn. I’m not a fan. The Head is nice; medium height and pretty frothy, it lingers for awhile. The Aftertaste is yummy vanilla and wintergreen that lasts a long time so if you drink the whole bottle pretty fast, those flavors build and the whole thing gets much better. If you just sip it slowly however, it stays pretty weak at the beginning of each drink.

That’s disappointing. On the whole it’s not bad but it needs a lot more to move to the next level. It is all natural (if citric acid is natural) so it’s got that going for it at least, but honestly, Gene deserves better than this. See how it rates against other root beers.

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