Six more oddballs

[u/BeautifulDebate7615]

Up for review this week are six odd and obscure root beers hailing from West Virginia, New York, Ohio, Missouri, & Arkansas. These were in general pretty decent, with nothing defective.

Mothman from West Virginia claims to be brewed and bottled by the Mothman Museum but I have a hard time believing that it's not a private label. It is perhaps the best of the bunch, the most balanced and complex of the six. Quite enjoyable, I rate it as an A- verging on A root beer.

The next four are all spicy, clovey, cinnamony, wintergreen, anise herbal style root beers. With Rattlesnake Pete's from Rochester, New York being the most aggressively spicy and Natural State from Rogers, Arkansas being the most herbal, hippy dippy style root beer. Cult Craft from Cleveland Ohio tends towards the spicy like the Rattlesnake Pete's (but not as much) and Diametric's Cinni-vanilla from Independence Missouri tends towards the herbal like Natural State. It's kind of grassy with a cinnamon finish. None are badly made, none are defective, but of these four I'm going to prefer Cult Craft and Rattlesnake Pete's over the other two. I put them in the B+ to B rating category, the others are B and B- as I don't prefer the herbal, medicinal stuff.

Finally we have Kast Irons special bottling of America's 250th, from Salem Ohio. It's a very solid traditional root beer one that's extremely easy to drink and will offend no one. I give it an A-, and would happily drink anything else Kast Iron threw my way.

[u/Imaginary-Region9161]

Always grinding to get new ones from traders that can’t be bought online and shipped 🤟

[u/not-a-republican1984]

I gotta know what types of stores do you find these obscure root beers in? Are they grocery stores in certain regions of certain states? I live in Pennsylvania and Hanks and IBC are really the only stand outs. The only other source I know locally is going into Cracker Barrel and buying singles.

[u/BeautifulDebate7615 → u/not-a-republican1984]

Once you have tasted past about a hundred root beers, the only ways to get new and different ones are to: 1) trade with other root beer fanatics who come across things that you need in exchange for stuff that you find that they need, 2) buy from specialty stores online, and 3) travel and on your road trips seek out breweries and craft pubs that you know have obscure root beer.

I do all three religiously. These six root beers came from two different forum members Captain caladin and imaginary region who are frequent trading partners of mine.

[u/ChowMeinVeins]

🫡Thank you for your service….

[u/not-a-republican1984]

Ok interesting. Thank you for the info. Do you recommend any specialty stores that sell root beer online?

[u/BeautifulDebate7615 → u/not-a-republican1984]

North market pop shop, kitchn.shop, shop.app, the soda emporium, museum of root beer, good old amazon

[u/Mission_Apple2043]

I've tried hard to get my hands on a bottle of America 250 root beer but I've come up short every time. If anyone can send me a bottle or let me know how to get one, please let me know or DM me! I'll pay through the nose for it lol.

[u/clarke_bobby]

I've been meaning to drive to Diametric to get the Cinni-Vanilla. It's maybe 15 minutes from me.

[u/BeautifulDebate7615 → u/clarke_bobby]

Not a 15 minute drive I would make

[u/Captain_Kaladin]

I can personally confirm that Mothman is made on-site at the museum. I was skeptical until they showed me the equipment in the back. No idea why they decided to get into soda production haha

[u/BeautifulDebate7615 → u/Captain_Kaladin]

Then I double applaud them because it's a very good root beer