So, I decided to see what all the hype was about, and popped open a bottle of Not Your Father’s Root Beer Ale with the Taste of Spices. In this case, it wasn’t *my* father’s root beer, but since my son gave me this bottle to try, it did become *his* father’s root beer. I had been eyeing it on store shelves for a while, but really didn’t want to buy an entire six-pack. Not because I thought that there would be anything wrong with this (root) beer, but because they tend to be rather too sweet for my taste.

Not Your Father’s Root Beer is brewed by the Small Town Brewery, though which small town they represent remains a mystery. The label says this is brewed in Lacrosse, Wisconsin, which would be the City Brewing Company. Hence, this is a contract brew, though if it sells well enough one would suspect that the Small Town Brewery might open one. Small Town does have a small brewery of its own in Wauconda, Illinois.

Small Town also makes an “Apple Cider Ale” and a chocolate porter according to their website. They tell an elaborate back-story for the root beer on the six-pack holder:

My great-great-grandfather from the 1600s was the captain of a ship in England. He was also a bit of a gambler. As legend has it, he won a brewery during a high-stakes card game, which led him to start crafting his own beers. He began brewing beer on the ships he sailed. This allowed him to travel further than other vessels because beer stayed fresh during long journeys. The story goes that his beer was even consumed on a fleet of ships he commanded that transported some of the earliest settlers to America.

 

Growing up, I had never heard the complete story about my great-great-grandfather until I expressed an interest in making my own beer. When I told my mom that I planned to open a brewery, she finally revealed my family’s beer making history and why brewing was “in my blood.” Using some of my great-great-grandfather’s recipes as inspiration, I founded Small Town Brewery. At Small Town, our goal is to honor my family’s beer making tradition by creating specialty beers with unique and flavorful ingredients.

Not Your Father’s Root Beer has an alcohol content of 5.9% by volume and you can get it for around $9.99 a six-pack here in Georgia (Target has the best price I have seen at $9.49). There is a stronger version that is over 10% by volume.

Not Your Father’s Root Beer pours to a dark cola color with a thin, fizzy and short-lived soda pop head formation and a sweet sassafras and licorice nose. Taking a sip, this has the taste of old-school, real root beer with sassafras, licorice, ginger, and vanilla, especially in the finish. That finish is sweet, decidedly so, but with a definite note of alcohol. All in all, tastes a lot like root beer, which is what they advertise, with plenty of tasty real vanilla flavor. I like it, perhaps not quite so much as Sprecher Bootlegger’s Bourbon Barrel Hard Root Beer, but I like this. I would drink this again, though it is too sweet for me to drink more than one in a sitting.

And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.

*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.

(B)=Bottled

(D)=Draft

(G)=Growler

 



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