Small Town Brewery Not Your Father's Root Beer (5.9%)

Brewed By: Small Town Brewery in Wauconda, IL  

Purchased: 12oz bottle from a 6-pack bought at Jewel-Osco in Chicago, IL; 2014 

Style/ABV: Malt Beverage, 5.9%

Reported IBUs: ?

If you need proof that beer geeks have a strong overlap with alcoholics, look no further than the Small Town Brewery and Not Your Father's Root Beer. Not Your Father's Root Beer is an alcoholic root beer that punches in at 5.9%, 10.7%, and 19.5%. You can guess which one beer geeks seek out. I have never quaffed the 19.5%...and maybe that's a good thing. I have no problem pounding 12oz draft pours of the 10.7% version. The beer is not only smooth as hell, but it has some of the best root beer flavor I have ever had. It's legitimately better than non-alcoholic root beer, as the alcohol brings a peppery spice and extra dimension of flavor. And did I mention this stuff is tasty? It makes Sprecher's Hard Root Beer look really crappy. Anyway, about Small Town Brewery:

Small Town Brewery is a small brewery based out of Wauconda, IL. The brewery was founded in 2010, and have become notorious for their boozy root beer. For more info, hit up their website or Facebook page. 

The 5.9% version of Not Your Father's Root Beer is available year-round, and at this point in time I am having no trouble finding it on shelves. As these things go, this really isn't a beer...but you know, fuck it. That wine tag...they see my trollin'.

Not Your Father's Root Beer (5.9%)

The aroma on this is serious root beer with big vanilla, wood, medicinal spice, sassafras, cough syrup, molasses, and some serious cola. There is that amusement park candied sugar aspect, and big hard root beer candies. It's like a blast into my childhood, so I have to give this thing credit for making me drunk and making me feel like I'm 12.

As you can imagine, this tastes like root beer. This is super sweet, sugary, one-dimensional...but this is also really fucking good. It's like a top-tier root beer, with alcohol. You get that spicy bite up front, with some medicinal elements, sassafras, cola, dark fruits; the mids roll into more spice and some bubble gum sweetness; the back end dials up wood, vanilla, root beer candies, and tons of sugar. 

There's not much to say...this isn't complex, but the palate depth is really good. This is basically a stickier, sweeter version of root beer...with alcohol. It is ridiculous how drinkable this is, and that scales up with the higher alcohol version as well. And by scales up I mean scales up inversely. Honestly, the 10.7% is the smoothest 10.7% thing I have ever consumed. Dangerous stuff. 

Rating: Divine Brew (4.5/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Light Divine Brew on this. There is a slightly grapey flavor in here that was present in the Sprecher Hard Root Beer that you don't get when you have this beer on tap (or at least the 10.7% version). It's not a problem though, and sort of integrates into this beer. It's definitely a component in a good root beer, but when it runs away it can cause trouble. In this case, no trouble. You can pair this stuff with anything, but I'm partial to sipping on it after a meal while watching TV or whatever. And by sipping I mean drinking the whole 6-pack. Damn.

Random Thought: So now that the Bear's season is over, I need to figure out who to root for. Suggestions are welcomed. 

Goose Island Festivity Ale 2014

Brewed By: Goose Island Beer Company in Chicago, Illinois

Purchased: 12oz bottle from a 6-pack bought at Binny's in Chicago, IL; 2014 (bottled on 22SEP14 aka 9/22/2014)

Style/ABV: Brown Ale, 7.7% 

Reported IBUs: 50

It's another year, so that means another vintage of Goose Island's annual holiday/Christmas brown ale. This year, Goose Island swapped "Christmas" to "Festivity" for all the complainers that celebrate Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. This was totally unnecessary since craft beer is the next most white supremacist thing after the Klan and Nationalist party. If you can't pick up on those white privilege tones, you need to visit any micro-pub in the United States or Europe. About Goose Island:

Goose Island is a Chicago-based brewery that began as a brewpub on Clybourn, which opened on May 1988. The actual brewery opened on 1995, and is located on the Southwest side of Chicago. The second brewpub, located in Wrigleyville by the Chicago Cubs, was opened in 1999. On March 28, 2011, Goose Island sold 58% of the brewery to Anheuser-Busch. The remaining 42% of the brewery is supposed to be acquired by A-B InBev in the future, and there has been much discussion about the brewery's takeover. On November 16th, founder and CEO, John Hall, announced he would be leaving Goose Island. On January 1st, 2013, Anheuser-Busch "veteran" Andy Goeler will take over Goose Island. Additionally, around the same time as John Hall's departure, resident barrel-program leader John Laffler also announced his departure from Goose Island. There have been many changes regarding Goose Island...so we will see what the future has in store for Goose Island. 

The 2011 Christmas Ale was really good, but I wasn't as big of a fan of the 2012 vintage. I skipped the 2013 vintage, which was branded Sixth Day. What the hell, Goose Island? Just call it your fucking Christmas Ale. Anyway, the politically correct 2014 Festivity Ale is brewed with Special Pale, Bon Munich, Caramel-60, Caramel-120, Rice Hulls, and ECJ Sugar malts. The hops used for this beer include Pilgrim and English Golding. This one clocks in at 7.7%, and packs 50 IBUs.

This is a gorgeous beer, pouring into a hazy burgundy/maroon body, kicking up a finger of maroon-tinged head. The beer is well carbonated, and has good head retention. In bright light, the beer appears more ruby red, but I guess it doesn't matter anyway.

If you like malty smelling beer, you'll be in good company here. This takes the Brown Ale base, and adds some sweet toffee and faint fig and dark fruit notes. I'm getting a lot of toasted malts, some sweet candies, and sweet Twizzler notes. 

This is probably the best Christmas Ale that Goozie Inlets has rolled out since the 2011 vintage that I'm so partial to. This is a giant malt bomb through and through, with tons of toffee and toasted notes hanging in the back, along with some faint piney hops. The main flavor here are sweet malts, sweet sugars, and tons of sweet Twizzlers. The kiss of hop bitterness at the back end totally rounds out the experience, and elevates the beer. If you dig into the malts, you get some brulee and burnt brown sugar, which is just so nice.

At 7.7%, this is a big and sweet beer. I recommend letting this one warm up. This is a medium to full-bodied beer, but the carbonation keeps things moving along, and the hop bitterness on the back end is a welcomed contrast. This has good palate depth and complexity, with lots of sugars and toffee up front; toast and fruity notes in the mids; and more sugars and piney hops in the back. I'm actually really impressed with this 2014 Vintage, I'm happy I picked up the 6-pack and I would pick this up again this year. Between this and Brown Shugga', I think Chicago is covered.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average on this. To reiterate, this is fantastic stuff...I would definitely pick some of this up if you see it on shelves. This is the perfect beer to pair with your holiday trimmings or a football game on a chilly night.

Random Thought: Seriously...I love being politically correct and sensitive to other people's needs but can we just call this the same thing we have been calling it for the past decade or whatever? 

Sierra Nevada Coffee Stout

Brewed By: Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California 
Purchased: 12oz bottle from the 2014 Snowpack purchased at Binny's in Chicago, IL; 2014
Style/ABV: Coffee Stout, 6.2%

Reported IBUs: 53

DAE Cerro Nevarros? I do. For $14.99 the 2014 Snowpack was too cheap to pass up. This year's Snowpack features their Porter, Pale Ale, Boomerang IPA, and Coffee Stout. About Sierra Nevada:

Sierra Nevada are one of the big players in craft brewing, and one of the first craft breweries to arrive on the craft beer scene. If you check out their history page, you will see that founder Ken Grossman began his quest to build a brewery in 1976. In 1980, Ken Grossman and co-founder Paul Camusi brewed their first batch of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. According to Wikipedia, Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale is the second best selling craft beer behind Boston Lager. Sierra Nevada is the sixth largest brewing company in the United States as well, cranking out over 750,000 barrels in 2010. For more info, check out their website.

Coffee Stouts are maybe my favorite thing ever, so I have some pretty high expectations with this one. The Coffee Stout punches in at 6.2% with 53 IBUs, and is brewed with Nugget hops; Two-row Pale, Caramel, Chocolate, Wheat, and Brown malts; and cold brewed coffee and lactose. 

Sierra Nevada Coffee Stout

This pours into a near-black body, kicking up a finger of dark brown head. Bright light betrays some of those brown tones around the edges, but this is basically opaque through and through. Head retention is good, with solid lacing. 

The aroma here: coffee, hazelnut, mocha, coffee + creamer, a little espresso, and lots of filter coffee and coffee that has been leftover in the filter. There is also a substantial amount of lactose on the nose, with hints of creamer, vanilla, and milk.

This pretty much follows the nose to the tee...leading off with lots of sweet coffee, filtered coffee, espresso, ground coffee, and some hazelnut sweetness. Along with the coffee onslaught is a lot of hints of mocha, creamer, lactose, and sweet notes. The sweet notes include some sugars and hints of dark fruits...beneath the coffee is some hints of roast complexity, but this is mostly a sweet coffee ride.

This is pretty straightforward, but gets credit for being medium-full at just 6.2%. The palate depth here is really good, but this isn't the most complex beer in the world. This pretty much rides sweet coffee up front, with tons of coffee, espresso, and hazelnut; the mids roll into some creamer, lactose sugars, mocha, and earth/tobacco; the back end trails with lots of coffee sweetness, and has a bit of roast. The theme here is sweet and coffee. A part of me wonders if this beer would be elevated if it had a little more roast or dark malt complexity to balance out some of the sugars.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Light Above-Average here. This is a really solid coffee stout, especially at the ABV, but I do think it could be a bit more complex. Still, this is a great addition to the winter pack, and also a tasty beer. I would pair this with some dessert....maybe some dry chocolate cake. Yum.

Random Thought: The 2014 Snowpack doesn't have any mind-blowing beers, but it does feature four very good beers. I'd say it is worth the $14.99.