See the yellow strip on the right side of the label? It's a date code. Mine reads either Nov 2001 or 2002 (the mark is right on the line between the years). Either way, I sure hope that's not the expiration date.

Note terry cloth backdrop - the true mark of a professional!

Manufacturer:

Brewed & Bottled for The Bulldog Brewing Company www.bulldogbrewingcompany.com

The Pitch:

Unleash the Taste

The Ingredients:

Carbonated water, fructose corn syrup, malto dextrin, raw honey, natural and artificial flavors, vanilla, phosphoric acid, sodium benzoate (a preservative). (Spike adds: Bulldog brewmaster writes, "Bulldog Root Beer does NOT contain fructose corn syrup, it contains granulated cane sugar, which is what gives it that old fashioned flavor. The artwork for the new, corrected labels just went to the printer, so it will be awhile before the new labels end up on any bottles.")

Spike says:

Swag. Gotta love it. Got a 6-pack of this junk and a t-shirt to boot. Picture of Mrs. Spike modeling said shirt coming soon. If you think the loot affected my review then may I recommend some yummy Think! Interactive root beer to you?

 

So where to start? Let's get rid of the usual minutiae. No head, nice color, light carbonation. Mmmm...love that cane sugar. Not everyone does - every once in a while I get a note from someone saying, "I had one sip of Natural Brew and threw the thing out along with the rest of the 4 pack!" I happen to like Natural Brew...I think cane sugar is a distinctive taste ("freezer burn" but in a good way) but in Bulldog the taste is much milder than with Natural Brew. It's creamy, smooth, has a really nice taste. Are you wondering, like I was, what "malto dextrin" is? I don't recall having seen it in root beer before? It turns out it's related to cocaine and is highly addictive. Apparently it's a ploy to increase repeat sales of the brew...which takes on a more ominous note when you take into account Bulldog's plans to sell nationally (at least that's what Dr. Evil, their brewmaster, tells me). Wow, that was a lot of writing for a lame joke. The stuff adds body (read this). Back to reality...I have to say it, this stuff is damn good. According to the brewmaster, "...we've been developing the root beer since 1997. It took us two years and nine test batches to perfect this recipe." From another e-mail, "The recipe took two years of development because one of my bosses had a very specific flavor profile that I had to match." Good boss, have a cookie. What amazes me is they were done in 1999 and it took four years for someone to notice the labels were wrong? (see ingredients above) Clearly not enough people know the taste of cane sugar. It's a little on the sweet side (I wonder why...let me count the ways...cane sugar, honey, malto dextrin) but not quite enough to knock it down a notch. If it had a good head I'd think it would be close to an "A", up there with Henry's (though I'd really have to consider the sweetness some more) but it is certainly an outstanding root beer so it's not out of line to give it an A-.

P.S. Another item of note from the brewmaster: "our root beer is one of very few root beers that are actually brewed, or cooked, like in the old days." The root beer also has its own website at www.bulldogrootbeer.com