Root Beer Beer: Summer’s Latest Craze

July 22, 2015 – Root beer is the flavor of the month this summer and aptly named “Not Your Father’s Root Beer” is flying off the shelves according to retailers.  Created by specialty brewer, Small Town Brewery of Wauconda, Illinois, it has been around for a couple of years but now with the help of Pabst, its distribution has grown from a handful of states to 30.

We haven’t tried it but a couple of reviewers agree it tastes like root beer, not ordinary beer, which is the base before adding the stuff that makes root beer taste like, well, root beer: cinnamon, wintergreen, anise, vanilla and sarsaparilla bark.  It is very sweet and likely appeals to a whole lot of people who don’t like the taste of real beer or who like sweet cocktails, the latest trend. The alcohol is not apparent and it tastes and looks like a soda but at 5.9 % ABV, this is not a drink for kids.  (Regular Bud is 5% ABV.  You can check out alcohol by volume of dozens of beers at http://www.beermile.com/beer_abv.beer)

We recently wrote about Uncle Bob’s Root Beer Whiskey http://www.wineandspirits.com/root-beer-whiskey-is-perfect-for-fourth-of-july/.  Sounds like there’s a cocktail in the making or a heck of a root beer float.
Not Your Father’s Root Beer has some competition in the hard root beer category.  Boston Beer is reportedly launching Hard Root Beer via its Coney Island line and another hard root beer is already on the market called Rowdy Root Beer made by Berghoff  Brewery of Chicago.  Berghoff has been around for over 120 years making serious beers and sodas.