Butter Beer

Butter Beer comes to us from Cooper's Cave Ale Company in Glens Falls, NY. A family affair, they began brewing beer in 1995 and opened their pub/brewhouse in 1999. As many know, beer brewing and brewing for sodas are closely tied and many micro-brewers also produce sodas. 

The very name on this bottle is what tempted me to give it a go. As always, I like to take some deep inhalations over a bottle of soda I've never tasted before. This bottle is smells sweet and creamy like a good old fashioned cream soda should. Upon tasting, I find the initial sense to be evocative of a butterscotch pudding. The cream flavoring follows a little too quickly and rids the butterscotch from your tongue. It would be nice if it were possible to lengthen the time the butterscotch stays with you. It is unfortunate however, that I'm finding the finish to be a tad "chemical" in taste. I couldn't say if that finish was due to the flavor extracts or a preservative. For this collection of tastes as a whole I'd say this particular flavor isn't my cup of tea. If you are apt to try a bottle, perhaps pair it with a greasy burger to coat your taste buds with.

Triple XXX Root Beer

Triple XXX began in 1895 Galveston, Texas when a group of investors teamed with Anheuser-Busch Brewing to establish The Galveston Brewing Company. Their brewery, capable of 100,000 barrels a year, produced beer in oak barrels marked "XXX". Five years later, in 1900, a hurricane struck Galveston, killing 8,000 people. The company was lucky, in that the brewery was one of the few businesses to survive and was able to presume production. It was about this time that they also began selling a line up of soda syrups, which coincidentally were sold bearing the brand "XXX". The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records continuous use of the "XXX" brand since at least 1908. 

In 1916, the state of Texas, perhaps sensing the momentum of the dry movement, preceded the Prohibition Act of 1918 by banning alcohol production. Galveston Brewing was better suited to face the prohibition than many brewing companies of the time due to already being in the business of soda syrup sales. Other breweries of the time either shuttered completely or started soda sales once forced to. The company changed it's name to Southern Beverage Company and converted the brewing equipment to soda manufacturing. In 1918, they registered the trademark "Triple XXX". 

By 1923, Southern Beverage Company had 150 distributors in several states as well as around 100 drive-ins called "thirst stations". In 1928, they finally added a cola flavor to their line up due to growing popularity of the cola beverage market. In 1932, the company reverted to it's original name and in 1924 when prohibition was repealed merged with Magnolia Brewing, of Houston and changed it's name again to Galveston-Houston Breweries. With prohibition repealed they reverted to brewing beer, though the plant in Galveston continued to make soda flavor extracts. In 1953, the company was sold to the Stenzel Corporation. A few years after this, most of the beer brewing production was sold off and root beer took center stage again. During this time however, fast food chain growth throughout the nation took it's toll on the number of operating "thirst stations".

In 1960, the FDA had banned the use of sassafras oil because it suspected safrole as being a carcinogen. Triple XXX's reverted to flavor analysts to use artificial means to keep its flavor close to the original thing. In 1969, Dr Pepper Bottling in Orange, Texas bought control of Triple XXX Corp. 

Because I'm Indiana born and raised I'd like to touch on the Triple XXX drive-in in West Lafayette, which is one of only two Triple XXX restaurants still operating today. It was the first drive-in of the state in 1929 and is the oldest drive-in restaurant in Indiana. I'm happy to report that this bottle states that it was bottled under the authority of Triple XXX Root Beer Co. of West Lafayette!

Enough with the history lesson... on to the drink. The first thing I'm noting is the color of the glass bottle. While I'm familiar with using brown and green bottles to limit the amount of light affecting the drink inside... this bottle isn't brown, it's a light amber color. It's quaff is very rich and creamy. It's quite delicious as well. If you've ever indulged in a root beer float you know that creamy vanilla taste the root beer has once you've eaten all the ice cream... and that's just how this root beer tastes. It's not very carbonated for a root beer, but that creamy root beer flavor makes it a great dessert soda.

Apple Beer

Apple Beer is a naturally brewed soft drink that dates back to the 1960's. The drink is a variant of a German beverage called Fassbrause, a drink brewed from fruit and spices which dates back to the 1800's. In 1964 The Apple Beer Company of Salt Lake City began to produce this variety of the drink. Apple Beer was originally only sold in cans, but became available in glass bottles for the first time in 1998.

As I am not sure what to expect from this drink I give it a good whiff after opening, but it strangely has no smell to it at all. The drink appears flat after opening, but a very nice carbonation emerges when tipping back the bottle to drink. If pouring it will develop a foamy head. It has a nice tingle and does in deed taste like fresh apples but with a tiny hint of spices. The crispness to it is sharper than a cider and I find that I enjoy this drink and imagine it best in the autumn with the smell of leaves in the air. Definitely give this a try if you are able to find it.

Abita Root Beer

Abita Root Beer is interesting in the fact that it comes from a beer brewery. Abita Brewing Company started in Abita Springs, Louisiana in 1986 by brewing beer using the town's artesian well water. They now have several different flavors and in 1995 began brewing a non-alcoholic root beer with local cane sugar.

I like the look of this bottle. The label makes me think of 1920's-30's advertising. Abita has a little less carbonation than some root beers, but a rich aroma. The ingredients don't list a specific root extract, merely "root beer flavor". It has a heavy flavor and tingles the tongue perfectly. It is a pretty basic American root beer, but would go well with any vanilla tinged dessert, including a heavy dollop of ice cream if you're a root beer float fan. The heaviness of this root beer will leave you sated by the end so sip slowly and enjoy.