Steelhead is an excellent, smooth and creamy root beer. If you prefer a sharper brew, this one may not be your favorite, but I’m a huge fan. Unlike many craft brews, Steelhead does not slap you with a mouthful of licorice. The flavor is a very typical sassafras root beer, with the creaminess of vanilla and warmth of honey. The body is rich and dark without being syrupy.

If Steelhead has any flaw, for me, it’s that it doesn’t produce much of a head. It’s not terrible… but it’s not in the same class as Henry Weinhards, or even A&W.

That said, Steelhead is a truly excellent root beer… easily one of my top 3. Unfortunately for me, it’s hard to find outside of Oregon. It can occasionally be ordered from the Root Beer Store, though they’ve been out of stock for most of the past year. Like Thomas Kemper and Henry’s, Steelhead is a brewery that also produces a root beer. They brew in Eugene, OR and Burlingame, CA.

Questions? Comments?

As usual, you can add your own rating to this root beer. I’ve given it a 8.5/10. For my root beer reviews, the overall rating is NOT a combined score from all of the individual characteristics; those are just provided for quick reference.

[Main Photo: This image provides a comparison between Steelhead and A&W Root Beers, with Steelhead on the left. Both were poured at about the same time prior to being photographed, but the image is a composite.]

But the root beer is worth the extra work required to obtain it. Because it is distributed in a growler, pulled from a keg, there’s some inconsistency in the brew; at times it will seem more carbonated (and give you a thicker head) and other times its a little more flat. I’ve also heard that they use a live yeast culture in the keg which continues to change the flavor of the root beer over the life of the keg (and subsequent growler), especially if it is not stored cold.

That said, of the 6 growlers of the stuff that I’ve consumed, none been bad, and the variations in the flavor only add to the charm of buying a small-batch root beer.

From the first pour, Scuttlebutt produced a nice thick head that lingers for several minutes. It’s not as thick as Henry’s, but it’s certainly longer lasting than A&W. Again, this varies a bit, according to the keg it came from. The body of the root beer is very full and dark, bordering on black and opaque, but it is not syrupy unless it goes completely flat.

The flavor profile is dominated by a moderate flavor of licorice, but it is not overwhelming (I’m not a fan of licoricey root beers, but I don’t include this among their ranks). Otherwise, the flavor is a rich mixture of spices, vanilla, sassafras, and something that gives it a little bit of sharpness in the finish. Usually not too sweet, but sometimes the flavor tastes a little yeastey or fruity… I’m not sure whether these variations come at the end or beginning of the keg, or whether there are just differences between batches.

Overall, this is among my favorite root beers. I take a couple of points off their score for inconsistency, and sometimes I’d prefer less licorice, but overall, its one of the good ones, and the head is excellent.

Questions? Comments? Rate it!

As usual, you can add your own rating to this root beer in the review box at the top of the post. I’ve given it an 8/10. For my root beer reviews, the overall rating is NOT a combined score from all of the individual characteristics; those are just provided for quick reference.

[Main Photo: This photo illustration provides a comparison between Scuttlebutt and A&W Root Beers, with A&W on the right. Both were poured at about the same time prior to being photographed, though they were not photographed together.]

When poured, this bottle of sassafras serum does produce a little bit of a head- not as much as something like A&W, but more than anything that comes out of Orca Beverages in Mukilteo, WA. The half inch of foam lingers for about half a minute before riding off into the sunset.

The label on the bottle makes two proclamations: “Gluten Free” and “Made With 100% Cane Sugar”.  The cane sugar is definitely an important part of the brew’s flavor; it’s sweet and has a bit of a bite from the carbonation and some light spices. There’s a little wintergreen. Beyond the bite, though, there isn’t much to this root beer. The body is on the light side… to the degree that it seems watered-down. The overall balance of the flavor isn’t bad, though… it just needs to be thickened up a bit.

The fact that it claims to be gluten free is a little silly, since virtually all root beers are gluten free (including A&W, Mug, and Barq’s), but I’m sure that it’s helpful marketing and may be genuinely useful for a few people who have celiac disease.

Anyway, it’s a decent root beer, but I’m not sure that I’d pick it over A&W if they were both available. I might.

Questions? Comments? Rate it!

As usual, you can add your own rating to this root beer in the review box at the top of the post. I’ve given it a 5/10. For my root beer reviews, the overall rating is NOT a combined score from all of the individual characteristics; those are just provided for quick reference.

[Main Photo: This image provides a comparison between Crater Lake and A&W Root Beers, with A&W on the right. Both were poured at about the same time prior to being photographed.]

In any case, it was with fond childhood memories on my mind that I purchased my first bottles of Bedford’s Root Beer a few weeks ago. The bottles still bear the same distinctive “B” on the label, and the Creme Beer is still pretty good. I had run across the bottles of both during a trip to the Root Beer Store, and I was a little bit proud to discover that Bedford’s is a true Northwest root beer, originally hailing from Port Angeles, but now bottled by Orca Beverage in Mukilteo, WA.

Bedford’s turned out to be a good root beer, but not a great one. The head was a little better than other Orca Beverage root beers that I’ve tried; during the pour, a low head of froth topped the liquid, and about a half-inch of it lingered for several seconds afterward. That’s still a pretty pathetic head, but it was at least a head, which is more than I can say for many Orca-made root beers that I’ve tried.

The flavor strikes me as nice and bright, but perhaps top-heavy. It’s nice and sweet and does not suffer from an excessive amount of wintergreen; the honey and vanilla are most prominent to me, and the fragrance is sweet and almost floral. However, this root beer has a medium-light body but lacks the depth and richness of flavor that I’ve found in others. Still, it’s a good root beer… just not among my favorites.

Questions? Comments? Rate it!

As usual, you can add your own rating to this root beer at the bottom of  the rating box, above. I’ve given it a 6/10. For my root beer reviews, the overall rating is NOT a combined score from all of the individual characteristics; those are just provided for quick reference.

[Main Photo: This image provides a comparison between Bedford’s and A&W Root Beers, with Henry’s on the left. Both were poured at about the same time prior to being photographed, but the image is a composite.]

It’s unfortunate, then, that I enjoy almost nothing about this beverage. When it’s poured, it generates about as much head as you’d get from mineral water (ie, none). Overall, carbonation is actually very similar to what I’d expect from club soda; it’s heavy and sharp at first, but it dissipates quickly.  In fact, it’s pretty likely that this stuff is now made by adding some flavoring to carbonated water (rather than being properly brewed), which makes the scent of the beverage a little confusing: the first aroma that hits my nose when I near the bottle is yeast.

The flavor of yeast is also prominent on the tongue, along with the birch. It may be that there’s no yeast at all, and that the birch flavoring used simply reminds me of yeast, but either way, it’s not pleasant. Even less pleasant is the aftertaste. My notes describe it as “yucky”. Beyond these first impressions, the flavor profile is pretty empty. In fact, that’s the word I think best describes this root beer: empty. It’s missing something, and a lot of it. It’s certainly not sweet enough, and it’s lacking any of the smooth flavors that would fill it out, like vanilla and other spices (though vanilla is listed in the ingredients). It ends up being almost watery, with that lingering aftertaste. Ugh.

And as long as I’m being disgusted by this root beer, let me mention how put-off I am by the haphazard label design. It was quite obviously home-made ( which is admirable), but it commits the cardinal sin of typography: they use Comic Sans! But that font is just one among the five completely different typefaces that are featured within a three inch radius of the logo. The inexpertly drawn hummingbird would be forgivable if trying to figure out the perspective didn’t make me feel as ill as the thought of drinking three bottles of this stuff (why is that distant wing so much bigger than the near one?!). The fact that they combine “root” and “beer” into a single word is annoying but relatively common.

All of this is unfortunate, because I really like the idea of a local, mom-n-pop root beer.  Luckily, this is all a matter of taste. If there weren’t someone out there who liked this stuff, they wouldn’t still be in business after ten years… so maybe you’ll feel differently about it than I do. They certainly have a unique flavor, and if you prefer a beverage that is not as sweet and not as rich as other craft root beers, you may like this one.

Questions? Comments?

As usual, you can add your own rating to this root beer. I’ve given it a 3/10. For my root beer reviews, the overall rating is NOT a combined score from all of the individual characteristics; those are just provided for quick reference.

[Main Photo: This image provides a comparison between Hummingbird Hill Birch and A&W Root Beers, with A&W on the right. Both were poured at about the same time.]

The bottle proclaims that the brew has a “Draught Style Head”, and they are right to be proud. Henry’s has the best head of any root beer I’ve tried, and it’s now the standard against which all others are judged. It foams up with a thick, frothy pillow of creamy goodness, and it just lingers around like it’s waiting for a tip. Even as you drink, the foam clings to the side of the glass.

Looking beyond the head, the root beer itself is quite good: it’s a malty, traditional root-beer flavor without the strong licorice or wintergreen overtones that are so popular with craft root-beers. Mollases, vanilla and sassafras dominate the flavor profile, with hints of other spices frolicking in the tail.  The body is on the heavy side of medium (though it feels a little heavier when warm), and very creamy but without being syrupy.

If I have any complaint about this root beer it’s only that it might be a little too smooth, and it’s missing a little bit of the sharper edge of my other favorite root beers; it could be a little stronger. There’s hardly any bite to this root beer, especially if you drink it semi-warm, and honestly, that’s just fine with me most of the time. This is a great beverage for those times when you just want something that’ll go down easy.

It’s worth noting that Henry Weinhard also makes a great cream soda, if you happen to be a fan. I am.

Questions? Comments?

As usual, you can add your own rating to this root beer. I’ve given it a 9/10. For my root beer reviews, the overall rating is NOT a combined score from all of the individual characteristics; those are just provided for quick reference.

[Main Photo: This image provides a comparison between Henry Weinhard’s and A&W Root Beers, with Henry’s on the left. Both were poured at about the same time. Note the depth of the head on the Henry’s, and the soda-style carbonation of the A&W’s.]

When I was a kid, my friends and I would ride our bikes down to the local grocery store and buy bottles of Souix City Sarsaparilla to carry along on our rides around the lake, or just as often, to be consumed on the way home. My grandfather in Montana would make “black cows” with me on special occasions,  and I remember sipping root beer floats while watching movies in the evening with my dad. I’ve loved root beer ever since, and every time I run across an unfamiliar bottle, I feel compelled to give it a try.

It turns out that there are a wide range of flavors to be found in root beer recipes. Some have a full body and taste of sassafras or molasses, while others taste strongly of licorice or wintergreen, and some are spicy or laced with flavors that don’t belong anywhere near a root beer.  Some are watery, others syrupy or creamy, some sharp, some a little more smooth.

Whatever your taste in root beer happens to be, though, you’ll probably find it at the Root Beer Store in Lynwood, WA, or at their other locations in Redmond and Puyallup. They stock over a hundred different varieties, from A&W to Zuberfizz Creamy Root Beer, with about a dozen brands from the Pacific Northwest, and dozens of other regional root beers… some from New York and Chicago, others from California, New England, and Louisiana, just to name a few. But they don’t stop with root beer. You’ll also find shelves of cream soda, birch beer, and sarsaparilla. Not enough? They also have bottled sodas and colas, from standards like Orange Crush to the more obscure ones like MacFuddy’s Distinctively Strong Pepper Elixir.

Stepping through the Lynwood shop’s back door (the parking lot is behind it, not on Highway 99), I found that there were several (mostly occupied) tables at which customers could sit and relax with a cold mug of root beer or a float dispensed by the soda-jerk behind the counter. The two young men working there were helpful and refreshingly knowledgeable, offering me suggestions while chatting amiably with the other customers. I had intended to say that they were “charmingly nerdy” or some such thing, discussing Magic-card decks and a past membership in a barbershop-quartet, but the truth is that in this era of teenagers raised on Glee instead of real rock music, I have no idea what counts as “nerdy” anymore. These guys could be Players for all I know.

The shelves along the back wall were replete with root beer bottles, with smaller sections for specific sub-catagories such as sarsaparilla and birch beer as I moved towards the right-hand side of the shop, and also for cream soda, ginger beer, diet varieties, and finally other assorted sodas and colas. I was overjoyed to find that they carried most of my favorite brands: only Steelhead Root Beer was missing this time (sold out), and they no longer keep Scuttlebutt Root Beer on tap.

Behind the service counter, a menu board advertised mugs of root beer from tap, root beer floats, ice-cream cones and sundaes, various ice-cream concoctions called “Muggers”, and hot dogs. The floats looked good, but I didn’t have time to stop for one that day… I’m sure I’ll stop back again soon, though. If you want some root-beer merch, they have T-shirts and branded mugs, too. I kinda liked the mugs.

The Root Beer Store’s website at www.therootbeerstore.com offers most (if not all) of these beverages for sale, if you can’t make it in to one of their locations, but the shops are definitely worth a visit if you can.