Anacapa Brewing Company

The Pooj lurks sketchily.

(Anacapa Brewing Company, Ventura, September 2010)

The Anacapa Brewing Company, named after Anacapa Island of the nearby Channel Islands, sits a short jaunt from the Ventura Pier. I first became acquainted with Anacapa during a buddy’s bachelor party while we had lunch at the neighboring Busy Bee Diner (really good chocolate malts), and subsequently wandered around Downtown Ventura for the afternoon. A couple weeks later, I paid Ventura another visit when I discovered that, in addition to a wide selection of micro-brewed beers, Anacapa also makes root beer.

So how good is it? Well, it’s kind of a long story…

My initial reaction to the glass set before me was, “Hmmm, this could be a really good root beer, but it’s kind of weak” – not off to a good start. But since it was drawn from a tap and it was served with ice, I had a feeling there might have been some diluting happening in the serving process. Since I had also ordered a burger and was still waiting for its arrival, I was willing to keep drinking and withhold judgment until after a refill. Lo and behold, when my refill arrived – delayed slightly because they had to pull a new tank/barrel of it, confirming my suspicions about getting the watered-down dregs of the previous tank/barrel – the flavor was much richer.

So how good is it? Well, let’s just say that this is the most I’ve ever paid for a bottle of root beer, but I paid it gladly so I could bring some home. Of course, it’s also the largest bottle of root beer I’ve ever brought home, so the cost is somewhat justified…

“It comes in half-gallons…?!”

OK, so technically it’s not a bottle of root beer so much as a growler of root beer (a growler being the vessel with which micro-brewed beers can be transported home), and the initial cost is justifiably higher due to the cost for the growler itself (refills are a downright bargain), but however you deliver it, this is an excellent – dare I say transcendent – root beer.

OK, so calling it transcendent may be a bit effusive, but it’s easily one of the best root beers I’ve ever had. From the bottle, the flavors are undiluted and complex – a perfect balance of sweet and herbs, with a pronounced clove taste and aftertaste. While cloves can sometimes be overpowering, it works well here, since it blends well with the other flavors and gives just enough of a root-y bite. The home-made nature of it means that, thus far, it hasn’t been exactly the same every time I’ve have it, though it’s still just as good every time. When I refilled my growler a few weeks later, the resulting brew was just as rich, just as complex, and just as flavorful, with anise taking a more prominent role this time around.

The simple fact that I couldn’t even wait until I had written a proper blurb about Anacapa’s root beer to go back for more of it pretty much sums up how I feel about it. Anacapa Brewing Company’s root beer gets a 5.