Sacramento is a special city to me. Both of my grandparents lived there and so we would go every summer for a week or two. After I became a root beer connoisseur, Sacramento was a place where I found many a new brew to review. The very first summer after my root beer ascension, while I was looking for root beers in the Sacramento mall near old town, I came across the River City Brewing company. They made their own root beer but only sold it on tap. It was amazing. I wished they bottled it so I could review it. They didn’t so I moved on, always remembering that amazing brew. Well when I came across this, I did a double take. Had the amazing root beer of my nascent days of a root beer aficionado finally been bottled? River City Root Beer is from Sacramento. Sadly though, it is made from different manufactures, so my dream remains yet unfulfilled. I was still excited, however, to try a brew birthed in the city of such root beer legacy. This time, I was not disappointed.
The Body is rich and creamy with traces of mint surfacing. It has a very strong and rooty flavor. The Bite is most excellent with the perfect amount of spices and carbonation. The Head is good. It builds to a very decent height and is pretty frothy. It lingers throughout the entire drinking experience, though I’ve had many that are taller and frothier. The Aftertaste is a lovely, creamy combination of vanilla and mint that sticks around about the perfect amount of time. This is an exceptional brew in all categories.
It says on the bottle that this is a brew to bring back memories of a time gone by, and I do think of glorious root beer days in Sacramento when drinking it. Underneath the cap it reads “Thanks to those who have gone before.” I must say, that this root beer, truly honors the past of great brewers while leading the way to a glorious future. See how it rates against other root beers.
