 | |
| Industry | Alcoholic beverage |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2010 |
| Founder | Tim Kovac |
| Headquarters | , US |
| Products | Beer |
| Website | smalltownbrewery |
Small Town Brewery was a brewing company based in Wauconda, Illinois, best known for creating the Not Your Father's brand of flavored beers.
Small Town Brewery was founded by John Dopak and Tim Kovac in Wauconda in 2010. [1] Kovac first started homebrewing in 1988. [2] After three years of development, Not Your Father's Root Beer was released in Illinois in 2012. [1] [3] 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. [4]
In March 2015, Small Town partnered with Pabst Brewing Company to distribute the Not Your Father's brand nationally. [5] [6] [7] Shortly thereafter, Pabst owners, including Pabst CEO Eugene Kashper, acquired a stake in the brand and the company. [8] [9] 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." [1]
The Small Town Brewery tap room in Wauconda opened on October 15, 2015. [10] It served a rotating cycle of 16 Small Town beers, with flavors including French Toast, Bourbon Pecan and Strawberry Rhubarb. [11]
The company ceased operations in 2019. Kovac opened a new taproom later that year in Cary under the name Spirit Water. [12]
Not Your Father's Root Beer is a traditionally-made beer brewed with botanicals, spices, and herbs such as wintergreen, sarsaparilla bark, anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla bean and honey, to give it the taste of an old-fashioned root beer. [13] [14] [15] It is currently available nationally in two abv levels: 5.9% and 10.7%. [13] Not Your Father's Root Beer 5.9% abv 6-pack bottles was the best-selling craft beer in the United States in 2015. [16]
Not Your Father's Ginger Ale was released in November 2015. [17] Not Your Father's Vanilla Cream Ale, at 4.1% abv, was made available in 2016. [18] However, the only products currently sold in the Not Your Father's line are Root Beer and Lemonade. [19]
Not Your Father's Root Beer was awarded Second Place in BeerHoptacular Beer of the Year, in 2013 [20] Beer Advocate rates the Not Your Father's Root Beer 10.7% variant as 94 out of 100. [8]
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. 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. [21]
Low-alcohol beer is beer with little or no alcohol by volume that aims to reproduce the taste of beer while eliminating or reducing the inebriating effect, carbohydrates, and calories of regular alcoholic brews. Low-alcohol beers can come in different beer styles such as lagers, stouts, and ales. Low-alcohol beer is also known as light beer, non-alcoholic beer, small beer, small ale, or near-beer.
Root beer is a sweet North American soft drink traditionally made using the root bark of the sassafras tree Sassafras albidum or the vine of Smilax ornata as the primary flavor. Root beer is typically, but not exclusively, non-alcoholic, caffeine-free, sweet, and carbonated. Like cola, it usually has a thick and foamy head. A common use is to add vanilla ice cream to make a root beer float.
Ginger ale is a carbonated soft drink flavoured with ginger. It is consumed on its own or used as a mixer, often with spirit-based drinks. There are two main types of ginger ale. The golden style is credited to the Irish doctor Thomas Joseph Cantrell. The dry style, a paler drink with a much milder ginger flavour, was created by Canadian John McLaughlin.
The Boston Beer Company is an American brewery founded in 1984 by James "Jim" Koch and Rhonda Kallman. Boston Beer Company's first brand of beer was named Samuel Adams after Founding Father Samuel Adams, an American revolutionary patriot. Since its founding, Boston Beer has started several other brands, and in 2019 completed a merger with Dogfish Head Brewery.
Sprecher Brewery is a brewery in Glendale, Wisconsin, U.S. It was founded in 1985 in Milwaukee by Randal Sprecher, and is Milwaukee's first craft brewery since Prohibition. Sprecher produces an assortment of beers, flavored malt beverages, and craft sodas, and it is famous for its root beer.
Thomas Kemper was a brewer of root beer, ginger ale, and other craft sodas under the Thomas Kemper Soda Co. label. Formerly owned by Pyramid Breweries, Inc., it was sold in 2007 to Adventure Funds of Portland, Oregon, which ran the company under the Kemper Co. name.
Nigerian Breweries Plc, is the largest brewing company in Nigeria. It serves the Nigerian market and West Africa.
An ice cream float or ice cream soda, also known as an ice cream spider in Australia and New Zealand, is a chilled beverage that consists of ice cream in either a soft drink or a mixture of flavored syrup and carbonated water.
Birch beer is a beverage, commonly found as a carbonated soft drink made from herbal extracts and birch bark. There are dozens of brands of birch beer available.
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 malt liquor. These include its own flagship Pabst Blue Ribbon, as well as brands from many defunct breweries.
In the United States, beer is manufactured in breweries which range in size from industry giants to brew pubs and microbreweries. The United States produced 196 million barrels (23.0 GL) of beer in 2012, and consumes roughly 28 US gallons (110 L) of beer per capita annually. In 2011, the United States was ranked fifteenth in the world in per capita consumption, while total consumption was second only to China.
Weyerbacher Brewing Company is a brewery in Easton, Pennsylvania, United States, founded in 1995 by Dan and Sue Weirback.
Monster Beverage Corporation is an American beverage company that manufactures energy drinks including Monster Energy, Relentless, Reign and Burn. The company was originally founded as Hansen's in 1935 in Southern California, originally selling juice products. The company renamed itself as Monster Beverage in 2012.
Oskar Blues Brewery is a craft brewery with locations in Longmont, Colorado, Brevard, North Carolina, and Austin, Texas. The company began as a brewpub in Lyons, Colorado in 1997 and began brewing beer in the basement in 1999. In 2002, they became one of the first to put their own craft beer in cans. In 2012, they began marketing some of their craft beer in resealable aluminum containers, and in 2012, they expanded and established another brewery in Brevard, North Carolina.
Blue Sky Beverage Company was a beverage company that produced soft drinks and energy drinks. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Monster Beverage Corporation. The company was established in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1980, where it remained until it was purchased by Monster in 2000. Coca-Cola North America took ownership of Blue Sky Sodas, Hansen’s Juice Products, Hansen’s Natural Sodas, Hubert’s Lemonade, Peace Tea and other non-energy drink brands as part of Coke’s partnership with Monster Beverage Corp on Jun 12, 2015. Blue Sky Beverage Company now operates out of Corona, California. The southwestern look and feel of the artwork on the soda cans is reminiscent of the company's roots in New Mexico.
Anheuser-Busch, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, is the largest brewing company in the United States, with a market share of 45 percent in 2016.
Hard soda, also referred to as flavored beer, adult soda, fermented soda, mature soda and alcohol soda, is a type of alcoholic beverage and craft beer that is manufactured in the style of a soft drink. It has gained recent prominence in the United States after the success of the Not Your Father's Root Beer brand manufactured by Small Town Brewery. As of late May 2016, at least 39 hard soda brands exist in the United States.
