I was perusing the aisles of my local stater bros the other day when I came across something that was of particular interest to me. Now, I like to enjoy a frosty beverage to unwind like any other person. I prefer mine to be non-alcoholic though. So, what does a trendy, young, rogue like myself sit down with at the end of the day? Of course, it's Root beer!
I usually prefer to stick with root beer in a glass bottle. After all, soda in glass tastes better. Now, that may not be necessarily true, but root beer in glass is definitely better than root beer in plastic or aluminum. In my experience at least. There's really only one brand of root beer that I ever see in glass bottles and that's IBC. I've sworn by the humble name of IBC for ages. The boys and I keep that in supply whenever we have a get together even. It's an amazing beverage. So imagine my surprise when this other brand of Root beer pops up in glass bottles. I had to try it. So, this blog post is a result of my little adventure in root beer.
The new brand: Henry Weinhard's, on the left, and IBC on the right. Their bottles are a little different. Weinhard's is a little fancier and has a longer neck. They still both hold 12 fl oz.
Fancy!
The big difference, of course, is in price. A six pack of IBC cost me 2.99. Weinhard's set me back 4.49. You do the math. But Weinhard's is "fancy." It's made at an actual distillery after all. Apparently the oldest continuously operating distillery on the West Coast. So what do you have to say to that, IBC?
Bust.
Let's take a look at the beverage itself now.
Before I compared their tastes, I wanted to look at them both outside of the bottle. Personally, I believe that root beer should be consumed within it's bottle. I decided to pour some into some wine glasses anyway. I first noticed that Weinhard's was way frothier.I guess that worked in its advantage because IBC went flat way faster than Weinhard's did. Weinhard's is so frothy, in fact, that you have to be careful drinking it because it may explode after your first sip! there really wasn't any difference in color. I did decided to sniff them just because, and was surprised to notice that IBC smelled way more like some kind of medicine than Weinhard's did. All in all, advantage Weinhard's.
It was really hard to choose which one tasted better. For one thing, they taste pretty similar. I also wanted to lean towards IBC just because I'm so used to it. I had to put those to the side in order to decide. Ultimately, I went with Weinhard's. It definitely has a certain quality that IBC lacks. I guess I would say that it's more refined. Fancy! So, as far as this root beer review goes: you get what you pay for. Cheers!
