Small Town Brewery was a

brewing company A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of b ...

based in

Wauconda, Illinois Wauconda ( or ) is a village in Lake County, Illinois, United States, a northwest suburb of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 14,084. It is the site of the Wauconda Bog Nature Preserve, a National Natural Landmark. Wauconda ...

, best known for creating the Not Your Father's brand of flavored beers.

History

Small Town Brewery was founded by John Dopak and Tim Kovac in Wauconda in 2010.Tripp Mickle
"Not So Soft Drink: Brewers Add Booze to Root Beer,"
''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'', August 14, 2015. Kovac first started

homebrewing Homebrewing is the brewing of beer or other alcoholic beverages on a small scale for personal, non-commercial purposes. Supplies, such as kits and fermentation tanks, can be purchased locally at specialty stores or online. Beer was brewed dom ...

in 1988. After three years of development, Not Your Father's Root Beer was released in Illinois in 2012. It was initially sold in its 19.5% abv incarnation in kegs at local bars and liquor stores. The brewery then did two small bottling runs of a 10.7% abv root beer in 22-ounce bottles, and in November 2014, they released 12-ounce bottles of a 5.9% abv version. In March 2015, Small Town partnered with

Pabst Brewing Company The Pabst Brewing Company () is an American company that dates its origins to a brewing company founded in 1844 by Jacob Best and was, by 1889, named after Frederick Pabst. It outsources the brewing of over two dozen brands of beer and ma ...

to distribute the Not Your Father's brand nationally. Shortly thereafter, Pabst owners, including Pabst CEO Eugene Kashper, acquired a stake in the brand and the company.Kyle Stock
"Boozy Root Beer Is About to Be Huge,"
''

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...

'', July 21, 2015. A new category in the alcoholic beverage industry was created due to the success of Not Your Father's Root Beer, referred to as " hard soda" or "flavored beer." The Small Town Brewery tap room in Wauconda opened on October 15, 2015. It served a rotating cycle of 16 Small Town beers, with flavors including French Toast, Bourbon Pecan and Strawberry Rhubarb. The company ceased operations in 2019. Kovac opened a new taproom later that year in Cary under the name Spirit Water.

Products

Not Your Father's Root Beer is a traditionally-made beer brewed with botanicals, spices, and herbs such as

wintergreen Wintergreen is a group of aromatic plants. The term ''wintergreen'' once commonly referred to plants that remain green (continue photosynthesis) throughout the winter. The term ''evergreen'' is now more commonly used for this characteristic. ...

, sarsaparilla bark,

anise Anise (; '), also called aniseed or rarely anix, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Southwest Asia. The flavor and aroma of its seeds have similarities with some other spices and herbs, ...

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...

nutmeg Nutmeg is the seed, or the ground spice derived from the seed, of several tree species of the genus '' Myristica''; fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg ('' M. fragrans'') is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fru ...

vanilla bean Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the flat-leaved vanilla ('' V. planifolia''). ''Vanilla'' is not autogamous, so pollination is required to make the plants produce the f ...

and

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...

, to give it the taste of an old-fashioned root beer.Gary Dzen
"A mysterious Midwestern brewer toys with dessert,"
''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'', June 27, 2015. It is currently available nationally in two abv levels: 5.9% and 10.7%. Not Your Father's Root Beer 5.9% abv 6-pack bottles was the best-selling craft beer in the United States in 2015. Not Your Father's Ginger Ale was released in November 2015. Not Your Father's Vanilla Cream Ale, at 4.1% abv, was made available in 2016. However, the only products currently sold in the Not Your Father's line are Root Beer and Lemonade.

Reception

Not Your Father's Root Beer was awarded Second Place in BeerHoptacular Beer of the Year, in 2013 Beer Advocate rates the Not Your Father's Root Beer 10.7% variant as 94 out of 100. Michael Agnew, owner of ''A Perfect Pint'', after visiting the brewery, argued that the equipment he saw could not produce such a high alcohol content product and suggested the root beer contained added

neutral grain spirit Rectified spirit, also known as neutral spirits, rectified alcohol or ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin, is highly concentrated ethanol that has been purified by means of repeated distillation in a process called rectification. In some countr ...

. Strange Brews host Andrew Gill speculated that perhaps it was not beer but rather a flavored malt beverage. Additionally, a ''Chicago Tribune'' article questioned the brewery's statement that no sugar is added to the beverage and that its sweetness comes solely from grains and spices.

References

External links

Official website
{{portalbar, Beer, Companies, Drink American beer brands Beer brewing companies based in Illinois American companies established in 2010 Pabst Brewing Company Root beer Ginger ale