--- title: Alcoholic root beer: Not Your Fathers Root Beer description: Not Your Father's Root Beer might be your new favorite drink canonical: https://time.com/3967987/alcoholic-root-beer-not-your-fathers-root-beer/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-22T18:45:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:22:26.972Z og:title: This Alcoholic Root Beer Might Be Your New Favorite Summer Drink og:description: Classic root beer taste, with a bit of a buzz og:url: https://time.com/3967987/alcoholic-root-beer-not-your-fathers-root-beer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b096e92721cfc77/69885c028e060157e5461815/not-your-fathers-root-beer.png?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: not your fathers root beer og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Alcoholic Root Beer Might Be Your New Favorite Summer Drink twitter:description: Classic root beer taste, with a bit of a buzz twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b096e92721cfc77/69885c028e060157e5461815/not-your-fathers-root-beer.png?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Alcoholic Root Beer Might Be Your New Favorite Summer Drink by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 22, 2015 6:45 PM UTC  Small Town Brewery by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 22, 2015 6:45 PM UTC While Homer Simpson and the citizens of Springfield ([and soon, _Simpsons_ fans far outside the fictional town)](http://time.com/3954560/homer-simpson-duff-beer/) may prefer to drink [Duff Beer,](http://time.com/3955807/duff-beer-simpsons/) there’s a new kind of beer sweeping the rest of the nation: boozy root beer. The drink is exactly what it sounds like—classic root beer flavor with an alcoholic twist. While a DIY version of the concoction can be found in bars across the country, Not Your Father’s Root Beer, from Small Town Brewery in Wauconda, Ill. is leading the charge on the retail front. According to [_Bloomberg_](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-21/boozy-root-beer-is-about-to-be-huge), their success is due in part to their purchase by a group of investors that included the Chief Executive Officer of Pabst Brewery and a subsequent distribution deal, but also to their magic formula of creating a new product with a familiar taste. They are clearly on to something, too, because the still hard-to-find product has a [FaceBook fan page](https://www.facebook.com/fanofnotyourfathersrootbeer?fref=ts) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/DenialChig/status/621853757974966272) is filled with [people](https://twitter.com/JacksonBasting/status/623875686604800000) looking for places to [purchase](https://twitter.com/iamjmw/status/621464068923092992), [boasting](https://twitter.com/CasandraBritton/status/621756669077389314) about [drinking](https://twitter.com/katiejeslis/status/621515123396579329) it and offering sampling parties. The root beer features a familiar blend of sassafras bark, vanilla, anise, wintergreen, and handfuls of additional spices that give it the nostalgic flavor, but with enough alcohol (5.9%) to give you a good buzz. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3967987/alcoholic-root-beer-not-your-fathers-root-beer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3967987/alcoholic-root-beer-not-your-fathers-root-beer/"},"headline":"This Alcoholic Root Beer Might Be Your New Favorite Summer Drink","datePublished":"2015-07-22T18:45:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:22:26.972Z","description":"Classic root beer taste, with a bit of a buzz","url":"https://time.com/3967987/alcoholic-root-beer-not-your-fathers-root-beer/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Alcohol","food and drink","Cocktails"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b096e92721cfc77/69885c028e060157e5461815/not-your-fathers-root-beer.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b096e92721cfc77/69885c028e060157e5461815/not-your-fathers-root-beer.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"not your fathers root beer","caption":"not your fathers root beer","creditText":"Small Town Brewery","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3967987/alcoholic-root-beer-not-your-fathers-root-beer/","name":"This Alcoholic Root Beer Might Be Your New Favorite Summer Drink"}}]}] ```