GourmetRootBeer

Tommyknocker Root Beer

Feb 192014

Tommyknocker Root Beer Bottle My first car was a little Ford Ranger without AC. This matters because when I moved from Eastern WA to Provo, UT for school in late August some years ago, driving in that heat for 12 hours presented a bit of a problem. My solution was to drive at night. So I left at 8 pm and arrived at 8 am. Along the way, I stopped for gas in Baker City Oregon and, as I am wont to do, I checked for any new root beers. I found Tommyknocker and bought some bottles to review at my destination. I absolutely loved it. I went back to visit my parents for Christmas and made sure to stop at the same gas station and got more. They thought it was amazing too. This was once the 3rd highest rated root beer for me. Then one day, I found it in a store in Provo. I bought a six pack and happily told a friend and we each had a bottle. She didn’t think it was that good, and I thought it was off a bit as well. I checked the label. They’d changed it! They took away all of the premium ingredients and replaced them with artificial and generic ones. I was crushed, but dutifully got to reviewing it again.

The Body is mapley, but kind of empty and not overly sweet. I do love that maple flavor though. There is not really much Bite at all, and, though I do like it smooth I like a little more. The Head is frothy but nothing too spectacular. I would class it as Ok. The Aftertaste is of maple but it doesn’t linger.

This brew gives a good first impression but falls short afterwards. Compared to it’s original hearty, sticky, super mapely former self, this was simply an empty shell. What a disappointment. I angrily emailed the company to castigate them for their foolishness. They replied that their recipe hadn’t changed at all. I retorted that I’d saved bottles from both reviews and the original, good one, not only had different ingredients listed but different nutritional values. They ceased their correspondence. Losers. Ruin a near perfect brew and try to lie about it. Oh well. When taken on it’s own the new one isn’t actually bad, just nowhere near it’s former glory. See how it rates against other root beers.

Schilo’s Root Beer

Draft and Keg Root Beers 1 Response »

Feb 122014

A Mug of Schilo's Root Beer A few weeks ago I was down in San Antonio for DistribuTECH where I was making a presentation on Cold Load Pickup. My usual Google search of “root beer ” turned up Schilo’s Delicatessen which boasts their own homemade root beer, and it was only two blocks away from my hotel. My first afternoon in San Antonio found me at Schilo’s for lunch and brew. The deli itself is about 100 years old and has been in its current location for around 70. It was started by a German family and is still run by a German family, though not the same one. The root beer was introduced during prohibition and they’ve kept the same original recipe ever since. They make it fresh every day in kegs, which are they then tap out from underneath a sweet wooden barrel arrangement.

The Body is sweet and rich and caramely. There’s tons of creamy vanilla complementing a spicy sassafras flavor. So, so good. The Bite is nearly perfect with loads of spice and the right amount of carbonation. It finishes very smooth. The Head is nice and foamy, though it could be a little taller and foamier. It’s good enough, but not quite perfect like the rest. The Aftertaste is lovely spiced vanilla.

Wow, wow, WOW! Every few years a root beer comes along that totally blows me away and this is one of them. I went back every day to get a mug and a free refill. The more I had, the more I loved it. It’s so rich and creamy and delicious. If the Head had been perfect, this would be a 5, but it was just slightly less than, so it only gets a 4.5. I’d say this is one of the top 5 brews I’ve ever had. It’s definitely worth making a trip to San Antonio for. It’s a shame they don’t bottle it. They said they were working on it, but since they use egg whites as a foaming agent (original recipe), they can’t let it get room temperature. That’s a shame, but I’d rather they stay true to that amazing recipe. Their food is delicious as well. My lunch was Wienerschnitzel with a side of the best split pea soup I’ve ever had. There’s a reason this place has stayed strong for over 70 years.

4.5 Kegs

My lunch at Schilo’s

The root beer barrel on top of the keg with a pitcher of root beer getting a refill.

The San Antonio River Walk. Schilo’s is just above the River Walk, though not at this particular spot.

Flyers Brand Vintage Draft Style Root Beer

Draft and Keg Root Beers No Responses »

Feb 052014

Flyers Brewery Root Beer Coming off of the wild success that was the trip to Silver City Brewery, I searched to see if there was something else local that would involve a scenic ferry ride and beaches and found Flyers Restaurant and Brewery in Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island. Correspondence with the owner revealed that the root beer was only added a little over a month ago. Since the 4th of July weekend was that next week I figured that one of those days we could take a little day trip. We chose July 5. The ferry ride was not as long, nor as scenic but Whidbey was very fun especially the Deception Pass State Park. Lunch was at Flyers with the first thing ordered being a pint of root beer.

The Body is sweet and full flavored with a nice creamy caramel flavor in there as well from brown sugar and vanilla. There’s also something out of place, sort of sourish tart, that surfaces after the initial contact and disappears shortly thereafter leaving you to wonder if it was ever really there. It really detracts from the other goodness going on. The Bite is very smooth with little carbonation burn or spices. The Head is medium height and very frothy. It lasts the whole time you drink it. The Aftertaste is vanilla and caramel that lasts.

This stuff is pretty good. I like all of it except that strange flavor in the middle. It doesn’t build and is gone by the Aftertaste, but it’s there, really getting in the way of what would otherwise be a very wonderful root beer experience. Because of that it can’t get a Seal, but a solid 3.5. The owner says he’s still tweaking the recipe and hopes to bottle it when it’s dialed in. I welcome his efforts and look forward to the mature product. The food is really good. My wife got the fish tacos which were delicious (she let me have half of one). They have a challenge of eating a 3 pound burger and 1 pound of fries in 30 minutes but seeing is that is 1 pound more and 15 minutes less than the last challenge I took, couldn’t do it. I ordered their Fireball Burger instead which had habenero sauce on top of green chilies, jalapenos, and pepper jack cheese. I love spicy, but not the flavor of habenero. Unfortunately for me they put so much habenero on it that it was one of the prominent flavors, and it really burned, even me. So I regret that purchase and wish I had gotten the oysters and chips. Oh well, live and learn and warn the rest.

The Fireball Burger. Note the massive amount of spiciness piled on there.

The fish tacos. Absolutely delicious.

Inside Flyers Restaurant and Brewery.

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