Heathen Brewing is a small craft brewery in Vancouver, WA, just across the river from Portland. The brewery says they are “created from the soul of home brewing” I’m not sure what the soul of home brewing is, and why that’s preferable over the soul of craft brewing, but either way, they want to free themselves and all of us from the corporate stronghold on the beer/soda industry. Just like everybody else it seems. More root beers for me to try. Interestingly, though I’d driven past it on several occasions, I didn’t actually know it was there. But it just started in 2014 so I’m to be excused again. Plus the last time I was down there I did get a new brew so it’s not like I’ve been slacking. Anyways, that wonderful Root Beer Tracker grabbed me this growler as he swung through the state about a year ago, so I didn’t have to go down there.
The Body is very minty and kind of bitter but with a decent amount of vanilla. The Bite is mild and kind of smooth, expected more spice. The Aftertaste is vanilla and wintergreen, which is pretty nice.
This is okay, but a little too bitter and mild and not enough sweet. The Aftertaste saved it though, so I think it’d be worth drinking with some food. It also had an amazing Head, but I don’t rate Head on growler brews because it’s too hard to maintain consistency. So yeah, drinkable stuff.
Bandit Beverages is a soda pop company in Northern Utah. They are focused on old fashioned soda flavors, especially IronPort. IronPort is a soda you can find in Utah, but mostly in soda fountains. They claim to be the only ones who sell bottled IronPort but I swear I’ve seen it bottled somewhere else. And yet, as I search the web (at the time of this writing) I can only find it at Bandit. But I don’t review IronPort so I don’t care that much. I do care about root beer, and no purveyor of old fashioned sodas would be complete if they didn’t have root beer, which Bandit does. They have six other flavors as well. I don’t know why they like bandits so much, but they do. Their tag lines are “Live your life on the run.” and “Drink like a bandit” They even say their website is run by “Bandit Beverage Bandits”. The label with the bull head silhouette makes me think they are going for old-timey Western six-shooter type bandits, which fits their flavor themes well. 
So two weeks ago I was down in San Antonio for DistribuTECH 2018! And yes, that means I flew out just a few days after getting back from Chicago. I’m movin’ these days. That’s for sure. Devoted followers will remember that San Antonio is home to one of the best brews I know of, 
