Rock Bottom Brewery

Who Made This Stuff?     Rock Bottom Brewery, San Diego, CA

Website:                            http://www.rockbottom.com/

Where’d It Come From?  San Diego, CA restaurant

Review Date:                    11/16/10

Commentary:  Imagine my joy when the hotel receptionist out here in San Diego handed me a map with a bunch of local restaurants on it and I noticed the Rock Bottom Brewery on the list!  Oh, happy day!  

About two years ago, I had the opportunity to dine at the Rock Bottom restaurant up in Long Beach and enjoy a fresh brewed root beer.  Much to my dismay, my root beer was served with ice in it.  Yes, you read that last sentence correctly.  Can you believe that?  A place that brews their own root beer and they served it with ice.  For shame.

This time, I specifically requested no ice in my brew.  I couldn't help but notice the look of  disappointment in the eyes of my waitress when I ordered. She was so sure that I was going to order one of their micro brews (or two, or three).  She could hear the sound of her tip shrinking as I ordered a beverage that cost much less than a beer and that would come with free refills.

I have to say that I was not impressed when the root beer was set before me.  It had no head on it whatsoever and had no distinct root beer aroma.  The first taste revealed a definite licorice emphasis.  The carbonation was good to start, but faded a bit too quickly for my liking.  There were some large bubbles in there initially. 

No one would ever accuse this root beer of being overly sweet.  Creamy is out of the question as well.  This brew has a slightly medicinal flavor.  Now, that's not always a bad thing.  I think it works here.  It was not what I was expecting, but hey, what do I know?

When the waitress brought a refill, this root beer redeemed itself a little bit.  The refill did have a bit of head on it and the carbonation was better.  This time around it had lost some of its medicinal edge.  That might have been due to the mahi tacos I was eating, though.  By the way, order the mahi tacos if you're ever there.  The pineapple salsa sounds weird, but it really works!

Okay, let's score this one.  Although this root beer arrived at my table with little or no head on it, I can't really be too tough on it for that.  I don't know how long it took the waitress to get it to my table after it had been poured.  As for the taste, I can't say that it is near the top of my list of favorite brews, but it's not at the bottom either.  Medicinal brews are just okay for me, dog.  I'll score this one as..............................................................72.

Renzy Roo Brew -- The Review!

Who Made This Stuff?     We did!

Website:                            You're looking at it.

Where’d It Come From?  My kitchen

Review Date:                    9/8/10

Commentary:  After 3 full days of fermentation/carbonation in the basement and a week in the fridge, it was finally time to test the latest edition of our homebrewed root beer, Renzy Roo Brew.

We were thrilled to see that the carbonation level was almost right on.  It produced a nice head when poured.  The head didn't stick around too long, but at least we were able to get a picture of it.  There was still some carbonation left in there while we were drinking it, but it could have used a little more.

The flavor was okay.  We detected some yeastiness, but it wasn't overpowering.  I think the sweetness level was about right.  However, I think the flavor wasn't quite strong enough.  It definitely had a solid wintergreen base.  We had added some vanilla to the brew, and I think that helped to cut the wintergreen a little.  I just think we need to use a little more root beer extract next time.  I may add more maltodextrin next time as well.

All in all, I am very pleased with this batch.  Considering the fact that our first two attempts were not too successful, I'd say we did really well this time.  It is definitely drinkable, has good carbonation, and the sweetness level was good.  We just need to add a little more flavor punch next time around.  I am happy about two things:  1) We don't have to pour the rest of the batch down the drain, and  2) We have identified a couple things we can work on for next time.

So, how will I score our own root beer?  Since we have room for improvement, I'll give it score of.....................................71.

Has anyone else out there tried to brew your own root beer?  How did it turn out?  Any tips you'd like to share?

Renzy Roo Brew -- 3rd Home Brew Attempt

We made another attempt at brewing our own root beer tonight.  This is our 3rd attempt at this.  The first time we tried it, the brew turned out just a little below "okay".  Something just wasn't right with it, but I couldn't put my finger on it.  We made a second attempt a few months later, and that one was just plain awful.  It didn't carbonate much at all, and tasted bad to boot.  We used different root beer extracts in the two batches, so that may have accounted for some of the difference in tastes.

So, it has been a couple years since we last brewed our root beer.  The main problem was that our garage refrigerator died about 18 months ago.  Without a garage fridge, we didn't have anywhere to store our brew since our kitchen fridge is always jam packed.  We now have a new fridge in the garage, so it was time to dig out the old recipes and try a new root beer extract.

This time, we went with Zatarain's extract.  I knew those folks made rice mixes, but I didn't know about the extracts.  I pulled out my notes from our first two attempts, and did a little research online to come up with a recipe to try this time around.  The extract bottle was for a 5 gallon batch, but that was more than we wanted to make.  The online research helped me determine how much extract and sugars I should use for our 2 gallon batch.  After a visit to our local home brew shop to pick up a few supplies (and a little advice from the store owner) and then a trip to the grocery store, we were ready to go.

Getting the supplies ready.

The brewmaster, hard at work!

Adding the activated yeast.

We did our best to keep things sanitized and do things at the right temperatures, in hopes of not messing up the carbonation and the flavor.  We'll know in a few days how things went.

One of the best things about this project, was that it was something my son and I could do together.  Besides having fun, he got a quick lesson on the magical powers of yeasts and another lesson on siphons and hydrostatics.

Our two gallon batch yielded 15 bottles.  Fourteen were the heavy glass, flip-top beer bottle type, and one was a plastic soda bottle.  The plastic bottle is our test bottle that we'll use to check the carbonation level in a couple days.  Once that bottle gets really hard, we'll know we've got enough carbonation.  Then we can move all the bottles to the fridge to kill the fermentation/carbonation process.  After a few days of chilling, we'll be able to sample the brew.  

Here is a close up of the finished product, including our custom label:

I'll let you know how it all turns out once we've had a chance to try some.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Has anyone else out there tried to brew their own root beer?  Any wild success stories or epic failures?  Any advice for a couple novices like us?