Route 66 – Eric’s Gourmet Root Beer Blog

Mother Road Route 66 Root Beer

May 052021

Mother Road Route 66 Root Beer Bottle When I was at Blue Sun getting one of the most perplexing yet delicious brews (Lemon Root Beer?) I also stumbled across this. Mother Road isn’t exactly brand new. It’s Filbert’s except with cane sugar instead of corn syrup. Now those two things do taste different and can make a difference in a root beer. I’m actually quite please with Filbert’s, for rather than change their original product which may anger their old fans, they just made a whole new soda line for the cane sugar recipes. This is even better because people like me have no issue reviewing a new root beer with a new label and name and only one different ingredient, then going back and reviewing again the same root beer even though it changes. Yes, I really want everything in the (root beer) world to just be easily categorized. Anyhow, Mother Road is now the fifth brew with Route 66 in the title that I’ve had, which is probably a record for root beer name themes. Though enough about names and routes and things, let’s move to the root of this review.

The Body has a classic taste with sassafras and wintergreen. There’s a little vanilla in there as well but not as much as I would like. The Bite is okay. You can feel and taste the spice, but it’s nothing exceptional. The Head is medium but foamy and lasts as it should. The Aftertaste is a more sassafras and wintergreen.

This is rather generic and much like Filbert’s, which is to be expected. I like, not love it, but like it better than the original, which was their goal all along? I don’t know. It’s a nice brew, just nothing special. It will hit the spot with a hot dog on a hot summer day which is a win for most people, but I won’t have it in my fridge for special sipping occasions. See how it rates against other root beers.

Mr. D’z Route 66 Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Jun 202018

Mr. D'z Root Beer Bottle More Route 66 root beer, though this time they decided to dispense with the puns. They are probably all taken anyways. Mr. D’z is a diner on Route 66 in Kingman, Arizona. They’ve been there since the year 2000 and they do all of the things you’d expect from a Route 66 diner like hosting car clubs, having a gift shop, and of course, making their own root beer. The label is an embodiment of the diner, with the classic food, cars, and root beer itself. The “D” is for somebody by the name of Dunton, from Dunton and Dunton, but the website doesn’t explain this connection. Additionally, I don’t know who actually bottles this stuff, as that detail has been left out as well. Many a mystery with this brew, perhaps it’s worth dispatching my favorite detective. My good pal Sagai, The Root Beer Tracker sent me a bottle to review, which is fortunate since it doesn’t appear to be sold online anywhere. And, though I love a good road trip for root beer, Arizona is a little too far.

The Body is creamy with a nice caramel flavor but also a hint of fruity. There’s a nice Bite from the spice that isn’t too assertive. The Head is short but not “two-second” so. The Aftertaste is a light vanilla with some caramel and fruity hints.

Shame about that fruity. It really takes away from a pretty decent brew. It’s not so bad as to make me recommend avoiding this altogether, but I think it’d be best to have this with your food down there. See how it rates against other root beers.

Round Barn Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

Dec 162015

Round Barn Root Beer Bottle In the tiny town of Arcadia, OK, on Route 66, there exists a place called Pops. There, on the iconic route, they’ve got it all; a restaurant, a landmark, a soda ranch, and a website that actually works. Their soda ranch boasts over 600 flavors, a good 1/6 of that coming from various root beers, birch beers, sarsaparillas, and associated diets. Very impressive. Not wanting to stop there, they decided to get their own flavor of root beer and contracted with the Huebert Brewing Company to make it for them. They decided to buck the whole Route 66 trend and instead named their root beer after some round barn. The picture is on the bottle and everything. In a town of less than 300 people, I can accept that a big ol’ round barn may just be defining feature of the place. The Wikipedia article on Arcadia confirms this as it has exactly one photo in it which is nearly identical to the label picture, same angle and everything. Curiously, the article doesn’t mention anything about said round barn, so maybe it’s just for looks or something.

The Body is rather bland. It’s really REALLY sweet and syrupy but only a medium flavor profile. It’s a tad creamy with the slightest shadow of wintergreen, but you really have to look hard. There’s also a fruity hint. There is the slightest spice Bite but not much in the carbonation department. That all fizzes up to build a very nice Head that’s tall and lingers awhile, though it’s not a high froth Head. The Aftertaste is sticky corn syrup that turns bitter.

So about a week before I tried this I got an email from someone claiming my review of Henry Weinhard’s was wrong because it uses HFCS and that tastes inferior to sugar and as the primary ingredient it would have the most pronounced flavor. I responded that the sugar doesn’t make the brew and other ingredients can have much stronger flavors. This brew, however, fits exactly what he was getting at. It has a very high 47g of HFCS and that is by far the dominant flavor. Really this tastes like moderately flavored corn syrup drink, like if you watered down some Aunt Jemima. I’m not a big fan. See how it rates against other root beers.

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