SoMe Brewing Cinnamon Toast

The Stats
Style: Herbed/Spiced Beer
ABV: 5.4%
Current Ratings...
- Beer Advocate: 3.91/5
- RateBeer: 3.4/5 (1 rating)

No brewery description on this one. Also no official website to view the beers. Going in dark.

Pours a rusty dark orange bordering on amber with a finger of white head.

The aroma reminds me of a winter warmer with its abundance of cinnamon. There's the slightest touch of vanilla and some multigrain bread.

The taste retains everything from the aroma, but it is greatly subdued. With a beer named "Cinnamon Toast" you'd expect more of a cinnamon sugar flavor, but it's more just pure spice than anything else. The other dominant flavors are the bready malts, but now they are toasted and dark with some more of that multi-grain flavor from the aroma. Imagine Pepperidge Farm Cinnamon Swirl Bread put in the toaster and you'll get where I'm coming from.

Mouthfeel is light, but not too thin. There's no alcohol to be found and it goes down easy.

Overall this promises cinnamon toast and you get what you pay for. While not the most robust flavored ale (only 5.4%), this accomplishes its goal while being a fun beer to drink.

Rating
7.0/10

Small Town Brewery Not Your Father's Root Beer (10.7%)

The Stats
Style: Herbed/Spiced Beer
ABV: 10.7%
Current Ratings...
- Beer Advocate: 4.17/5
- RateBeer: 3.52/5

"Not Your Father’s Root Beer is a category-defining craft specialty ale brewed with unique spices. Brewer Tim Kovac’s creativity and painstaking commitment to flavor complexity results in an unmistakable offering that masterfully blends hints of sarsaparilla, wintergreen, anise, and vanilla.

Kovac passed down his family’s beer making tradition by working tirelessly with his son to craft the first version of “Not Your Father’s Root Beer.” At 10.7% ABV, the silky, smooth and satisfying finish is unmatched in flavor. It appeals to craft beer aficionados as well as those who don’t typically drink beer but crave something unique."

Pours a murky, muddy, dark brown. When held to the light it is a glowing mahogany with two fingers of eggshell-colored head that disappeared immediately.

I can tell you right now that this glass is sitting a good three feet away from me and the aroma is just as pungent as it was when I poured it right out of the bottle. It really smells like world class root beer with tons of vanilla and hints of black licorice.

If you've had the standard NYFRB then this will taste eerily familiar. The same bold, sugary flavors are here from the 5.9% version, but they are a bit more enhanced. Trying to describe root beer in a complex way is tough and this is no exception, but all I can say is that this has a delicious combination of vanilla and licorice that really packs a punch. The vanilla is dominating the first half, but on the transition to the back there's almost a minty or herbal quality which also sticks around most on the aftertaste. While sugary like soda, I actually don't mind it all that much and the lack of any alcohol (even at over 10%!) makes this taste like soda pop.

The mouthfeel is overall similar to soda, but this is not a carbonated as I would have hoped. There's also moments where it can get syrupy, but there is still enough of that carbonation presence to make it go down like regular root beer. The absence of the alcohol makes this just as easy to drink as the regular 5.9% NYFRB and that is pretty damn dangerous.

There's not much more to say about this incarnation of Not Your Father's Root Beer except that it is incredibly similar to its 5.9% brother. That being said, the flavors were a bit bolder, but one of the lone sacrifices you had to make was some subpar carbonation and a slightly thick feel at times. Those minor gripes aside, the 10.7% version is almost mind-bottling (you know, when things are so crazy it gets your thoughts all trapped, like in a bottle) with it's complete lack of any alcohol and soda-like drinkability. It's almost worthy of praise with the way it hides the 10.7% so well, but a lot of people won't take this beer (if you can call it beer) seriously due to the stigma of being "just" alcoholic root beer. I've bitched and moaned about the shit-talkers in the past, so I won't get into it again, but this stuff is deserving of your time.

Rating
9.2/10

Small Town Not Your Father's Ginger Ale

The Stats
Style: Herbed/Spiced Beer
ABV: 5.9%
Current Ratings...
- Beer Advocate: 3.35/5
- RateBeer: 2.7/5

The Not Your Father's Root Beer craze hit its zenith during this past Summer and has since vanished faster than Haddaway (Oh, just Google it!). I feel that beer got a bad rap. Before Small Town Brewing made a deal with Pabst to take NYFRB national, they were just an obscure operation out of Illinois whose alcoholic root beer was receiving unanimous acclaim and was being heavily sought out on trade forums. Now that you can find it anywhere, in mass quantities, year-round, the reviews have taken a nose-dive because now that it is easily accessible, people don't want it. Oh, and now people complain that it is just root beer with alcohol. Well, (pardon my French) but no fucking shit! What did you think it was when you bought it and were clamoring for it a year ago? Now beer purists/elitists/snobs and people who live and die by the Beer Advocate Top 250 are too good for it. Well, just shut the hell up! You drank it, you liked the way it tasted, but you won't admit it because you think it is just a "chick beer". You suck.

Wow, I went off on a little tangent there, didn't I? Ok, back to reality. So, from the minds of Not Your Father's Root Beer comes this little fella that I spotted on the shelf next to NYFRB. I wasn't even aware a ginger ale from these guys was in the works, but since I liked the root beer so much, I had to give this a try.

Pours a transparent goldenrod color. The head disappeared instantly much like soda.

I mean, I don't know what else to say except that it smells like ginger ale (no shit), but it is significantly sweeter than any brand I've had as it has notes of caramel and even some vanilla with the faintest hint of wood.

It tastes more like cream soda than ginger ale, but it is still tasty and refreshing. Though the initial gush of flavor is a smack of ginger that tastes better than any commercial ginger ale I've come across. Going back to the aroma and the sweetness, it emerges here again towards the middle with those aforementioned caramel and vanilla characters. Like its brother, there is no overly sugary flavor as it drinks like standard soda, but with more genuine ginger.

Mouthfeel is loaded with carbonation which makes sense given what the beer is trying to accomplish. A nice, full body which doesn't leave a sticky, syrupy aftertaste made this easily drinkable with sporadic moments of refreshment.

There's not a lot to say here as I conclude the review, but the fact of the matter is that you get exactly what you pay for. If you want a super hoppy IPA, then go down a different aisle at the store. You buy this fully expecting alcoholic ginger ale and alas, that's exactly what you get. It tastes like top-tier ginger ale and you can't taste the alcohol, so tread lightly when gulping this down.

Rating
8.6/10

Small Town Brewery Not Your Father's Root Beer

The Stats
Style: Herbed/Spiced Beer
ABV: 5.90%
Current Ratings...
- Beer Advocate: 4.25/5
- RateBeer: 3.41/5

In recent years, I have never seen such a nationwide buzz over an alcoholic beverage as I have seen with Not Your Father's Root Beer. The craft beer community generated the buzz about a year ago when this was limited to the state of Illinois. Word quickly got around about a hard root beer that tasted like a standard soda. Fast-forward to 2015 and recently, Small Town Brewery signed a deal with Pabst to take NYFRB national, so every state could enjoy it. Not much info is available (to me anyway). It's advertised as an ale with spices, but I believe it is a standard root beer recipe that is then fermented like any other beer. 

Pours almost pitch black, but had shades of dark brown against the light. I poured aggressively and got almost three fingers of tan, fizzy head, but it disappeared instantly just like soda.

I don't know what else to say. It smells like delicious root beer with a big vanilla kick. No alcohol at all.

Again, not much to dissect on this one. It's literally just like drinking a world class root beer with bitterness, some licorice and big vanilla extract that isn't too sweet. In contrast to to other "hard root beers" or any root beer-flavored malt beverage is the absence of any alcohol taste. In a blind test, you would not know this is nearly 6.0% abv and that is an achievement.

Mouthfeel is full of soda-like carbonation. When compared to other hard sodas or beverages, this doesn't have that syrupy body. It drinks like soda and yes, you will crush this like a standard root beer, so just be careful as the alcohol will sneak up on you as you chug this down.

NYFRB is a unique entry into the beer world (if you can even call it beer). Some may look down on this as a gimmick or they will say it belongs in the same aisle as Twisted Tea and Mike's Hard Lemonade. Well, to hell with them as this smells great, tastes great, and is not only easy, but fun to drink.

Rating
9.1/10