Fireman's Brew Root Beer

This is another root beer i got from my shipment from Soda Emporium. Fireman's Brew is based in Inyokern, CA (a little north east of Bakersfield) and was started in 2000 by two Los Angeles based firefighters named Rob and Ed. They started the company making beers, but expanded to make a root beer, a cream soda, a black cherry soda, and even a few flavors of coffee. One thing i read on the site and thought was pretty cool is that they carve off a piece every sale and donate it to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, which is nice to see them take care of their own. No complaints about that. In fact sirs, my hat is off to you.

The label is very tasteful and well done. It has a nice firehouse type seal dominating the label. It's clear and clean and professional looking, as well as respectful. The logo has the phrase "Extinguish Your Thirst" above it and "Ignite the Party" below it. Catchy, classy, and an overall good feel to it. I gotta say, i'm impressed with the work you've done Rob and Ed.

This root beer is also sweetened with real cane sugar, which seems the route a lot of smaller companies are going. I know the debate rages on between pure cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup, i.e. which is better for you and tastes better, etc. Frankly, i don't really care. I like a lot of the root beers/sodas with HFCS and i also like some with pure cane sugar. That's not as big selling point for me as it may be for many others. But using cane sugar can't harm your score in my opinion. The sweetness of the root beer is a mere afterthought to what the overall flavor is, and i gotta say, this one has a real good flavor. It has a nice wintergreen aroma and taste, a touch of molasses maybe, and it packs a little bit of a bite. But i has good carbonation and a nice aftertaste which make this one of the better root beers i have had in a little while. It reminds me a little of Teddy's, though i still think Teddy's has the strongest and most favorable wintergreen finish to it of almost all the root beers i have tried. But I think this is stuff can hang with Teddy's.

My official review is that Fireman's Brew gets 7 (seven) IBCs. I struggled with this rating a bit. It's every bit deserving of a 7, which is good, but my wife was urging me to give it an 8 or possibly even a 9. She said she thinks i am wrong on this one. That's how i know my wife is crazy. I mean, this stuff is good, but i gave Teddy's only a 7 and Teddy's is still better than Fireman's. In fairness, Teddy's was one of the first i reviewed, and in hindsight and after 4 years of doing this i would readily say Teddy's is deserving of an 8 for sure. However, i don't re-review or retract ratings once given, so Teddy's stays at 7 and this one needs to fall in line. Had i given Teddy's an 8, i would gladly bump up the rating on this one as well. But really, the pith of the matter is that this is a good root beer and you should grab one if you get the chance.