root beers

Glewwe’s Castle Root Beer

this brew was another one i was very excited to stumble upon the website for as i am sure i would have had no idea it existed if not for my relentless searching of “root beer Minnesota.” and every other state or country or province i could think of that would produce root beer or birch beer or sarsaparilla. i emailed Mark, the brewer, and asked if he shipped his sodas. he quickly replied that he did and would be happy to ship me a bottle of another brand i had on my “wanted” list as he could get it easily. it turns out that that other company had emailed me the day before offering to mailorder some to me, so Mark offered to send a bottle of another brewery in the area which i did not even know about! what a guy!
this soda (and a cream soda too) are all handmade, from bottle washing to brewing to capping to labelling. that is just awesome. especially as it is not yeast carbonated, which makes me happier.
the graphic design on this is not so great, but i think that really only adds to the appeal and personal creation of it. there are spelling errors and about four or five different fonts, that makes me smile. now i am sure some people will complain about me saying this stuff is good in this case but i was not happy with the design on the Windy City yet there are different beasts, this is a personal, handmade product, not really intended for mass distribution or commercial appeal. that one is.
so i think this is the first soda i have had that mixes root beer and birch beer extracts. and i must admit i am intrigued. it is tasty. i would definitely put it in the “root beer” category yet it has a bit of that birch beer wintergreen-ness to it. that right there makes this soda unique, which is something i seem to value in my reviews. this is a strong, flavorful soda. the taste seems to slowly morph and change during drinking, making you pay attention to it. one would be hard pressed to idly down this brew or drink it while doing other tasks without taking that moment to make like the Kool-Aid dude and smile with an “oh yeah!” at least in your thoughts.
in my correspondance with Mark, he asked how i do my ratings, do i assign points to different things like presentation, foam, carbonation, taste, bouquet? the answer is “no.” i think i will write a post about my process sometime soon, but there is not a lot to tell anyway.
i was a bit worried that this would be very generic and lame and i would have to give it a bad review, even after all of the effort gone through for it to end up in my belly. but, happily, that is not the case. the citizens of Spring Lake, MN are lucky, they can go enjoy this anytime they want.

Anthony’s Rating: 91
User’s Rating: 90
# of ratings:23

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Type: Root Beer Comes In: 12oz glass bottle, keg, 22oz glass bottle, On Tap
Available: MN, online

Obtained in: mailorder from company
Head: Medium Sweetener: high fructose corn syrup, honey, maltodextrin
Caffeine: No
Website: http://www.glewwe-castle.com/sales/index.html

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5 Comments

  1. pjobson says:

    Very unfortunate they use the high fructose 🙁

  2. How funny, I live in MN and have friends who lived here all theirs lives and they never mentioned this. I will be looking for this for sure. Thanks, Rick b

  3. […] was a very cool surprise! when i ordered some Glewwe’s Castle Root Beer, the brewery offered to send me a bottle of this as it is only available at the brewery which is […]

  4. Paul H. says:

    Glewwe’s Spring Lake Root Beer is only sold through the mail or at a tiny farmer’s market about 20 miles south of Minneapolis. The flavor is very bold, probably the boldest I’ve ever had in a Root Beer. It’s also complex with a good strong bite. I rated this a 100 because it’s the best root beer I’ve tasted (though I’ve only tasted about 40 brands so far.)

  5. Craig says:

    Some of the best Root Beer I have ever had. I lived in the Twin Cities for 20+ years and never knew about it until last summer. I drove to Prior Lake and I wasn’t disappointed. AMAZING STUFF!!!

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