At Last, The Root Beer I've Waited 60 Years For

Not Your Father's Root Beer is the beer you hoped beer would taste like

Re-published just in time for the 2nd Presidential Debate

By Marc J. Rauch
Exec. Vice President/Co-Publisher
THE AUTO CHANNEL

I've loved root beer ever since I was a kid, which is about when most root beer lovers start loving root beer, and I'm always on the lookout for a another great root beer.

There are some Saturday-morning cartoon images in my head with a little guy all dude-ed out in cowboy gear walking into a bar, ordering root beer, and getting served a big frothy mug of root beer that he quaffs in one gulp. And if I remember correctly there's at least one Three Stooges cowboy short where Curly and/or Shemp orders some "sasprelli" and consumes it with as much gusto. Anyway, it's these kinds of role models that set the tone for me. Nuk, nuk, nuk.

The story goes that root beer started out named "root tea," but that no one was interested in it until the name was changed to "root beer" to give it a rougher, grown-up quality. As a kid, I (we) imagined that we were being like the adults and drinking our own kind of beer.

Of course, as I got older and had the chance to try real beer I was sorely disappointed. In fact, it took me well into my 30's before I began liking beer. The initial microbrew era of the 1980's and 90's helped my beer appreciation along, and the recent craft beer era has cemented it. Now, my wife and I now drink beer as often as we do wine and margaritas - which is pretty often.

Recently, when I would go shopping for beer and wine, I noticed a new product: Not Your Father's Root Beer. The wine and beer shops that I normally frequent also happen to sell soft drinks, so I wasn't sure if it was just a new root beer or a root BEER. My mind wandered.

On another trip, I took a closer look and found that it was indeed a root BEER. My mind wandered some more. However, I didn't take the plunge because I didn't want to be disappointed. On the creative side of my brain I'm was tasting a great root beer like my favorites Frostop, Lockdown, IBC, or River City, combined with some kind of liquor. But on the logical, business side of my brain I'm thinking "no way."

Next time visiting Total Wine I was buying various beer singles that we like: Alesmith, Lagunitas, St. Bernardus, Trappistes Rochefort, Rasputin, etc. I passed the Not Your Father's Root Beer display and suddenly thought, that's it, I'll buy a single and try it. Unfortunately, the store only had it in 6-packs. I didn't want to get stuck with beer I wouldn't like, so I didn't buy any. I know, it's sound cheap of me, but after all, there's so many great beers (like the ones I mention above), why waste money?

As it happens, the next night Debbie and I went to our favorite sushi bar. Naturally, when we have sushi we always have beer, and I was expecting to do what we normally do and either have a Japanese beer or one of the local dark beers that they serve. Well, you can imagine my surprise when we walked in and saw a hand-written sign in the entrance that announced:

Special Tonight
NOT YOUR FATHER'S ROOT BEER

Oh boy, this was going to be the moment!

We sat down, went through the usual chit-chat with our regular waiter, and in answer to his question "what would you like to drink," I ordered the root BEER.

Let me cut to the chase: It came in an ice cold bottle with a frosted glass, it looked good, it smelled like root beer, and then I tasted it: YIPPEE! This was the best root beer I've ever tasted. Root beer wise it was as good as Frostop, Lockdown, IBC, or River City, with that extra something - 5.9% of that extra something. This is the root BEER I've waited 60+ years for. It was delicious, scrumptious, fantabulous. This is ROOT BEER, the way that it must have been intended, even if the original inventors never knew this is what they intended.

If you like root beer you must try this. But, I can see where not all beer lovers will like it. It might be too sweet, too candy-ish for them....and I hope so, because then it means there's more for us that do (and will) love it.

Aaah, one of my childhood dreams fulfilled. I guess next year I may get that chance to play for the New York Yankees, finally.

Not Your Father's Root Beer is produced by Small Town Brewery of Wauconda, Illinois. I understand that it's also available on draft in Illinois. Get more information at http://smalltownbrewery.com/.