Not Your Father's Root Beer 6Pk

Not Your Father's Root Beer 6Pk is a 5.9% ABV spiced ale brewed with vanilla, sarsaparilla, and wintergreen by Small Town Brewery in Illinois. This unconventional craft beer became the best-selling craft beer in the United States in 2015, earning an 89 rating on Beer Advocate across more than 2,800 reviews.

Quick Facts: ABV: 5.9%  |  Origin: Illinois, USA  |  Style: Spiced Ale / Hard Root Beer  |  Brewery: Small Town Brewery

Production & Heritage

Small Town Brewery, based in Illinois, produces Not Your Father's Root Beer using traditional beer-brewing techniques rather than simply blending neutral spirits with root beer flavoring. The recipe calls for a carefully curated list of botanicals: wintergreen, sarsaparilla bark, anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla bean, and honey. This approach creates a fully integrated flavor where the spiced ale character and root beer taste develop together during fermentation, setting it apart from spirit-based alternatives in the hard soda category.

Tasting Notes

Aroma: Root beer aromatics lead immediately — sassafras and vanilla dominate, with a subtle backdrop of warming spice. A faint honeyed sweetness rounds out the nose.

Taste: The entry is creamy and full of classic root beer flavor, driven by sarsaparilla and wintergreen. Mid-palate, anise and cinnamon add complexity while vanilla bean sweetness keeps the profile approachable. Nutmeg emerges toward the finish, giving the ale a layered, spiced depth that reads more like a dark ale than a flavored soda.

Finish: Silky, smooth, and satisfying with lingering vanilla and warm spice. The 5.9% ABV stays well-hidden beneath the sweetness, making the finish clean and easy.

How to Drink Not Your Father's Root Beer

Serve chilled straight from the bottle or poured into a frosted mug for maximum root beer nostalgia. It also functions as a surprisingly versatile cocktail ingredient.

• Adult Root Beer Float: Pour over vanilla ice cream for a boozy twist on the classic American dessert — the creamy ale body makes this combination seamless.
• Root Beer Mule: Combine with vodka and a squeeze of lime in a copper mug — the ginger-like spice notes in the ale complement the mule format naturally.
• Spiked Root Beer Shandy: Mix half-and-half with a crisp lager to cut the sweetness while preserving the botanical character.

Best For

• Introducing craft beer drinkers to the hard root beer category
• Summer cookouts and backyard gatherings where a nostalgic, easy-drinking option stands out
• Dessert pairings as an alternative to stout or porter
• Gifting to someone who enjoys creative, flavor-forward beers

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Not Your Father's Root Beer taste like? It tastes remarkably like classic root beer — creamy vanilla, sarsaparilla, and wintergreen up front, with cinnamon, nutmeg, and anise adding spiced complexity beneath the sweetness. The 5.9% ABV is nearly undetectable in the flavor profile.

How does Not Your Father's Root Beer compare to Coney Island Hard Root Beer? Not Your Father's Root Beer is brewed as a spiced ale using traditional beer-making methods with integrated botanicals, while Coney Island Hard Root Beer tends toward a lighter, less complex root beer flavor. Not Your Father's generally scores higher among reviewers, holding an 89 on Beer Advocate compared to Coney Island's lower aggregate ratings.

Is Not Your Father's Root Beer good for beginners? Yes — its familiar root beer flavor and smooth, sweet profile make it one of the most accessible craft beers available, particularly for drinkers who find hoppy or bitter styles unappealing.

Where is Not Your Father's Root Beer made? It is brewed by Small Town Brewery in Illinois, USA. The brewery specializes in flavored ales and became nationally recognized after this root beer expression surged in popularity in 2015.

What foods pair well with Not Your Father's Root Beer? Smoked BBQ ribs — the vanilla and spice complement smoky, caramelized meat. Vanilla bean ice cream — the classic root beer float pairing in liquid form. Sharp cheddar cheese — the sweetness balances salty, tangy cheese. Chocolate brownies — cinnamon and nutmeg in the ale echo warm baking spices. Grilled burgers — the carbonation and sweetness cut through rich, fatty beef.

What sizes does Not Your Father's Root Beer come in? This product is available as a 6-pack of standard 12 oz bottles, which is the most widely distributed format for the 5.9% ABV variant.

Is Not Your Father's Root Beer worth the price? It positions as a mid-range craft beer with a unique value proposition — there are few competitors that replicate authentic root beer flavor this convincingly using real brewing techniques. For drinkers seeking something outside the typical ale or lager lane, the 6-pack represents solid value within the specialty beer segment.

Why Not Your Father's Root Beer?

What separates this ale from the crowded hard soda field is how it gets to the flavor. Traditional beer-brewing methods with actual sarsaparilla bark, wintergreen, vanilla bean, and honey produce a root beer taste that is genuinely integrated into the ale rather than layered on top of it. That distinction earned it a second-place finish at BeerHoptacular's Beer of the Year in 2013 and propelled it to become the top-selling craft beer in America by 2015. With an 89 rating on Beer Advocate from thousands of reviewers, the 5.9% variant continues to hold its place as the benchmark hard root beer against which all others are measured.