Root Beer Review #3 – Virgil’s

As you may have noticed, Tuesday has become Root Beer Review day. I have a full year of root beer to review!  This week, we had close family over for dinner, and my cousin Kristen, and her fiancé Paris, brought over some Virgil’s Root Beer. It’s a readily available root beer – most grocery stores carry Virgils. Some even carry the Virgil’s Root Beer mini-keg, a 5 liter source of party goodness, which I purchased in my wild college days.

Virgil’s is an all-around good root beer. On the label, it touts winning the Outstanding Beverage from the International Fancy Food and Confections Show in 1994, 1996 and 1997. I’m a little skeptical of awards from shows – sometimes fairness or the best brands aren’t necessarily the ones that win. As one example: Pabst Blue Ribbon still touts its “America’s Best” award from 1893. I think some people today would disagree, and one shouldn’t buy PBR on that award alone. And you shouldn’t buy Virgil’s Root Beer just because it won awards in the 1990s.

Virgil’s is a smooth and flavorful authentic root beer in both taste and flavor. The flavors are subtle and not overpowering at all. The fizz is the major aftertaste, which isn’t bad but feels like it’s lacking in ‘oomph’. I would compare it to a session beer; a very good root beer that can be consumed in larger quantities, i.e. during a ‘session’ without getting sick of it.

This is one of the only micro-brewed root beers available in most grocery stores.  I would highly suggest if you’re going to a party and looking for a root beer to bring, you can’t go wrong with Virgil’s – especially if you find the 5 Liter Keg. Although there are better root beers around, there are many other worse ones that would be disastrous to bring to a party.

Derek’s Rating: 8.0

Lots more bottles to go!