A friend of mine is working as a travel nurse right now and picked up this root beer for me in San Antonio, TX from a little restaurant called
Schilo's Delicatessen. The story of Schilo's includes pivoting from serving alcohol to brewing root beer when Prohibition went into affect. Schilo's has been operating as a restaurant since 1917, and this root beer was a big seller for them when they could no longer sell alcohol. The label even proclaims that this is Prohibition's Most Popular Drink. I think my friend had to visit the restaurant to get this drink, but i could be mistaken. He may have just gotten it from one of the local grocery stores.
The label is very colorful and eye catching. I like the picture of the founder, Fritz Schilo, a proud German immigrant who first opened a saloon and then later converted to a delicatessen when he could no longer serve alcohol. They use simple ingredients, including cane sugar. Just taking the cap off produced some impressive head inside the bottle. And the creamy aroma is very inviting. But as for taste this one is a little lack luster for me. The flavor is quite thin, which isn't in and of itself a unique profile, but i would have expected a flavor like this from a generic or grocery store line of root beer. And it reminds me a bit of (dare i say) Weinhard's in that there is a subtle candy corn aftertaste. Still, i am not entirely turned off by it. It is smooth and creamy and overall i can say it was enjoyable.
My official review is that Schilo's Root Beer gets 6 (six) IBCs. I like this one well enough. It stands above the common generic root beer out there, but i don't think it has a bold or strong enough flavor to join the upper ranks of root beers. So check it out if you're in the area and are looking for an historical taste of early 20th century Texan cuisine.
Note: i cannot speak for the food at all, so take that with a grain of salt.
