Seal of Approval – Page 21 – Eric's Gourmet Root Beer Blog

Slaughter County Brewing Company Root Beer

Sep 032014

This past Friday my parents were visiting for the Labor Day weekend. I decided that we should all take a ferry ride to Bremerton because it is an awesome ride. The question arose of what to do when we got there and well, I figured we’d go and get some root beer and have lunch. I decided to check if there was any new place that I’d missed and the lovely Google Maps showed Slaughter County Brewing Company in Port Orchard. I called them and asked if they made their own root beer and they said that they did. Therefore, that’s where we went for lunch. The whole place is very pirate themed, with skulls and skeletons and cannons and ships and whatnot. It’s got personality like few places ever do. They run on a skeleton crew, so you order at the bar and then they bring it up to you. We got six root beers, one for each of us, and then I got to reviewing.

The Body is darker with prominent anise and wintergreen flavors with spice. The anise isn’t too strong though and there’s also some caramel hints. The Bite is nice. There’s good amount of cloves and a nice carbonation level. The Head is nice and tall and lingers; not the longest, but it’s quite nice. The Aftertaste, surprisingly, is a creamy vanilla with a caramel finish.

Yum! I’m quite surprised by this one, at the first drink I thought it was just going to be an above average dark and spicy brew, but then that Aftertaste completely changes it up as though it were a creamy caramel type. I like it a lot. It’s got my favorite aspects of both genres of brew. Add in a nice Head to seal (pun intended) the deal and I’m proud to give this one a solid 4 kegs. The food there is pretty yummy too. I had the Musket Balls (meat balls) topped with The Seven Deadly Seasonings and absolutely loved them. I also got some wings and other family members had pizzas or sandwiches. We were all quite satisfied. We even got a growler of root beer to take back with us. A root beer this good and unique you don’t run into every day after all.

4 kegs

My lunch of Buffalo Wings and Musket Balls with the Seven Deadly Seasonings. So good. Plus some pizza and my Dad’s Cuban Sandwich.

The brewery in the back of the restaurant.

Right inside the door. Also the dart boards.

The bar. Notice the pirate stuff everywhere.

Capitol City Brewing Company Homemade Root Beer

Draft and Keg Root Beers No Responses »

Jul 302014

A pint of Capitol City Brewing Company Root Beer On the second day in DC, after I’d finished my … stuff, I had the evening free to myself. So after going to the National Mall and defying the “shut down” barricades (I’m such a rebel, I know), I headed out on foot to walk to the Capitol City Brewing Company for dinner. It was an hour walk but I am very cheap in my root beer questing and the exercise is good for me. They have two locations in the area, the closest to me was the Arlington location in The Village at Shirlington. The brewery is a very impressive place. They have four large brew vats in the middle with the bar around them. The vats are labeled with whatever is brewing in them at the time. They have other brew vats in other part of the restaurant as well. The place is very lively and looks to be quite the hang out to watch the Redskins play foot ball.

The Body is rich and creamy and delicious with caramel and vanilla notes. It has a mild Bite, just barely enough, and is very smooth. The Head is short, yet frothy and lasts. It’s just barely good enough to not dock serious points. The Aftertaste is a sweet, buttery, nutty flavor that kind of reminds me of buttered popcorn jelly bellies. It comes in strong, complementing and replacing the other flavors and lasts quite awhile, slowly fading as you wonder just what it is. I’ve never tasted that flavor in a brew before and I like it a lot.

I don’t want to say ‘wow’ but, Wow! That Aftertaste blew me away. The brew had plenty going for it at the first drink, but after swallowing it shines like nothing I’ve ever had before. It takes a good creamy brew and makes it exceptional. You just want to keep drinking it and drinking it to get that flavor again. Unlike Hops, they don’t give you a free refill, sadly, but I can understand as I would have probably drank an entire kegs worth. It’s a shame the brew mistress had just left before I got there, I would have loved to congratulate her personally on being awarded the Seal of Approval. The food was delicious as well. The server suggested I get a burger, and their Hickory Burger was divine. If you’re in DC you must visit this place.

4 kegs

The Root Beer Tap

The bar is really cool with those brew vats in the middle.

Ah dinner, a hickory burger and fries. It’s a bacon cheese burger with tons of chipotle barbecue sauce.

Private Label Beverages Root Beer

Bottled Root Beers No Responses »

May 212014

Private Label Beverages Root Beer Bottle Back when I traded for the the Ithaca, I also got two bottles of Lehman’s Root Beer and two bottles of Biker Brew Root Beer. I immediately got suspicious because both of them had the same sticker label, same ingredients, same nutritional values, and both didn’t appear on a Google search. Further inspection showed that the two also had the same barcodes so if that doesn’t prove they’re the same nothing does. I thought about calling Dr. Percival C. McGillicuddy but I didn’t want to pay exorbitant P.I. fees. I sent an email to the Lehman’s people and they were very accommodating and told me they got it from Private Label Beverages. I’m sure it’s bottled by Ginseng Up but these use sugar instead of the HFCS that Ginseng does so I don’t have to dig deep to find out that its a unique brew.

The body is sweet with a little bit of spicy vanilla and caramel notes; a very standard root beer flavor but well proportioned. The Bite is pretty mild, some carbonation tingle and just enough spice. The Head is super tall and pretty much foams over the top of the mug. Thankfully it doesn’t last forever so you can actually drink your root beer without having to slurp ridiculous amounts of foam off the top. The Aftertaste is some light, sweet vanilla and caramel.

This is a pretty solid, middle of the road brew with my favorite flavor profile. It was nearly a tossup as where to rate it. The super tall Head just barely pushed it over to a four. So now there’s another quality choice for your own custom soda. See how it rates against other root beers.

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