Not Your Father's Root Beer Review

Name: Not Your Father's Root Beer
Style: Hard Root Beer/Malt Liquor
ABV: 5.9%
IBUs: N/A

You want me to review this? C'mon guys, you can't be serious! Yes, believe it or not I've actually gotten several requests/inquiries to review this and I've held off on trying this out mainly because I don't consider Hard Root Beer to be actual beer, even though the creator of Not Your Father's Root Beer (NYFRB) calls it "beer" on a regular basis.

However, since NYFRB has taken this country by storm as far as demand goes, I guess I just HAVE to check out what all the cool kids are drinking. I do find it a bit perplexing that everyone is acting like Hard Root Beer is a brand new idea when Sprecher has been making their own Hard Root Beer for the past 2-3 years.

Doing a bit of research about this product, I found out that it started in a northern suburb of Chicago being brewed by Small Town Brewery, where it was sold to a few bars before becoming a huge hit. While Small Town Brewery still technically operates out of Wauconda, Illinois, NYFRB is being contract brewed at City Brewery in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where they make such fine products such as Mike's Hard Lemonade, Smirnoff Ice and Four Loko.

Oh joy..........

Appearance - Dark brown with a mild amount of carbonation. The head is initially khaki-colored in appearance but it fades away after a couple of seconds and there is no lacing to speak of.

Aroma - Well, it smells like root beer. You've got the sarsaparilla & vanilla notes mixed in with some cinnamon and what appears to be nutmeg. Not getting any booziness, so there's that.

Taste - Sarsaparilla & vanilla take over the front of the palate, with the sarsparilla lingering to the back end of the flavor which consists of moderate cinnamon & nutmeg notes with a light hint of ginger. The aftertaste is mainly sarsparilla and a light touch of vanilla and honey. I'm getting some light booziness too but it's pretty well masked by the other flavors

I honestly have no idea what score to give this beer. On one hand, it's doesn't taste anything like a beer and would be considered to be a malt beverage along the lines of say.... Mike's Hard Lemonade or those Kinky mixed drinks. On the other hand, it actually tastes quite good and it reminds me of Mug Root Beer, though I'm a loyal Barq's fan.

The final verdict: I still don't consider this to a beer per se.....but it tastes good and there's nothing I would consider to be remotely offensive about the taste. My only gripe is the asking price for a six-pack is a tad too high at around $11 a six-pack which makes me glad I got this as a single bottle.

Not Your Father's Root Beer - 8/10