One Hundred Root Beers!

Some people collect baseball cards.  Some people collect ex-girlfriends.  

I collect gourmet root beer.

I've mentioned this before here almost exactly a year ago, and I'm excited to announce that I have now tasted one hundred gourmet root beers and recorded my thoughts on each for the benefit of all mankind.

You're welcome.

So here are my findings on root beers 76 to 100.  Special thanks go out to Rocket Fizz in San Luis Obispo, which allowed me to knock off a baker's dozen in one trip, and my friend Ryan who flew all the way to a brewery Colorado JUST to get me my one-hundredth root beer (and no other reason, right Ryan?)

76.  CRATER LAKE: Fruity and Flat

77.  DOROTHY'S ISLE OF PINES:  I don't know if it's just the name playing with my taste buds, but this one actually tastes like pine.

 

78.  CAPONE FAMILY SECRET:  Pretty straightforward, root beer-tasting root beer.  Except for the sawdust.  Is that the secret?

 

79.  HOSMER MOUNTAIN SARSAPARILLA ROOT BEER:  Say cough syrup was a woman.  Now say you fell in love with that woman and all of the sudden cough syrup didnt have quite the same connotation.  Now say that that woman had a sister and that sister had a lovechild with brown sugar.  That child is this root beer.

 

80.  GOOSE ISLAND:  Nine parts marshmallows one part vodka.

 

81.  FIREMAN'S BREW:  Burnt brown sugar and cinammon Mr. Sketch marker.

 

82.  POLAR CLASSICS:  Peacefully sweet and creamy.

 

83.  MERCURY BREWING CO.:  Has a slightly sour, limey kind of flavor.  Like a root beer margarita.

 

84.  ROCKET FIZZ ROOT BEER FLOAT:  There's a very definite "vanilla" flavor, but the problem is that it's "vanilla flavor" flavor.  Tastes like a root beer trying to taste like a root beer float, which it is.  I'd much rather just put actual icecream in my root beer.

 

85.  LION BREWERY:  This root beer is decent and dependable, capable of succeeding in any task if only it were memorable enough for you to ask it.  In high school it was not the president of the chess club but it didn't start fights after school either.  It is the boy next door that you never really had a thing for in school, and when you see him at the reunion you say, "Wow, he looks great.  Good for him!" and then you continue the conversation with the girl from Econ, hoping you'll remember her name before something awkward happens.  By the way, in this scenerio, you were a girl next door but not THE girl next door.  You weren't a band geek in high school, nor were you a cheerleader, although you were on the color guard your freshman year.  You took three years of French and got straight A's but you hardly remember any of it now, the same way you don't remember the name of good ol' what's her face from Econ.

86.  BAUMEISTER:  Sugary, doesn't taste like berries... Or does it?

87.  SIMPSON SPRING:  This is a MAN'S root beer.  By that, of course, I mean it tastes like iron and shaving cream.  (Note: while this root beer honestly does taste like iron and shaving cream, I'm actually very satisfied with the flavor and, understandably, REALLY want pizza right now.  Touche, Simpson Spring.  Touche.)

88.  READING DRAFT:  Steak Sauce.

89.  OLDE PHILADELPHIA:  "I'm afraid this beverage is just too sweet for me."  -Thomas Jefferson.  ("I've had sweeter."  -Benjamin Franklin)

90.  SPRING GROVE:  Sugar, hope, innocence, spearmint.

91.  JOHNIE RYAN:  Lemon Heads dipped in A1

92.  FROSTOP:  Kinda Fruit Punch-y, kinda Peptobismol-y, kinda... Dill-y...

93.  TOMMYKNOCKER:  Cloves and black licorice.

94.  AVERY'S:  Jacuzzi water.

95.  DEATH VALLEY:  A lot of black licorice, a little bit of burnt toast, and a hint of an unplaceable, plastic/metal/mystery material taste which Jenette has dubbed "Walmart".

96. RED ARROW:  Sugar and spice and everything nice.

97. GRAY'S:  Has a nice, smokey sweetness that's overshadowed by the fact that it tastes watered down.

98.  CARUSO'S LEGACY- ROBUSTO ROOT BEER: Pretty good but not as robust as I would expect from the name.  Maybe "robusto" is Italian for "pleasantly above average".

99.  GUS GROWN-UP SODA- DRY ROOT BEER: So, take some strawberry-orange juice, you know, the Dole kind, and add about a gallon of water to it and stir it with a stick.  Now suck on the stick.

100.  B. STIFF & SONS: Not too sweet, not too spicy.  Perfect blend of innocence, zing and mountain spring water.

Fakestagram

I don't have Instagram but if I did it maybe it would look like this.

Christmas Time Machine

Okay.  Whew.  I'm ready for December and Christmas and stuff.  Let's do this.

What?  It's January?  Oh.  Dang it.  Well, how about next year you check out some Christmas recordings I was involved with this year.  (This year being last year.)  They're very different sounding albums, the result of different approaches to recording and music making, but they're both pretty great, if you ask me.

The first is with my new friend from my new church.  I played drums on two songs.  One of them sounds like this:

The second is with my old friends from my old church.  I played drums on all of the songs.  One of them sounds like this:

There are many more great songs on both albums so go ahead and download them both and then put them in a folder called "Do Not Open Until After Thanksgiving".