Chama River Brewery Root Beer

so the amazing Sagi, who is a very relentless and talented root beer tracker, went on a road trip before Christmas time in 2015. as most root beer hunters would, along the way he stopped at many places to get new root beers. he updated me often on his progress, sending photos and the like. his excitement was contagious. he sent me a photo of this growler and I marveled at the beauty of it, such a fantastic and unusual bottle! then he tried it and raved and raved about it. he insisted on getting a growler for me as well and shipping it off somehow as quickly as possible. I insisted he did not need to do so, he had places to go so no time to spare finding a post office and packaging this thing up! sending a growler is an expensive proposition! well, ok, if you insist. he did and it should have come in three days, which in itself seemed weird for two day mail. but then it did not come on the Saturday it was supposed to. early Monday morning though it was there! I packed it in my car to bring to work and sample it as soon as possible.
I will admit, at least some of the carbonation has indeed been lost. despite the ultra cool bottle and seemingly solid seal, gas escaped along the way. the super satisfying ‘hiss’ when opening the top was not as large as hoped. growlers are not made to keep the drink completely fresh for more than a couple days so it is not surprising anyway but one can hope.
nonetheless, there is a surprisingly high level of a thick head when i pour this. it does not last terribly long but still, it must have been magnificent when it was right off the tap.
when i sampled the soda right out of the growler, I found it somewhat unremarkable, which is not why Sagi sent it, so I found a mug and poured a glass. ah, now it comes through! the cinnamon! whoa, the cinnamon! it really controls the flavor. i like cinnamon so it is a nice thing to me. along with that is a less obvious sharp clove taste which is interesting for sure. they do take the usual root beer taste and turn it a bit to make it their own. this would appeal to the people expecting the normal but also those who seek something a bit unusual.

Anthony’s Rating: 91
User’s Rating: 0
# of ratings:0
Log in to rate & save your personal root beer list!