Why This Forgotten Brew Is Suddenly Flying Off Store Shelves

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Root beer is moving from the soda shop to the bar.

This summer, alcoholic versions of the childhood favorite began appearing on stores shelves and bar taps across the country and craft brewers found they had a bonafide hit on their hands.

Not Your Father’s Root Beer, which originated in a Wauconda, Ill.-based brewery, signed a deal with Pabst Brewing Company earlier this year and is now offered nationwide. The drink was the No. 3 craft beer product in country for the four-week period ending Aug. 15, following only Blue Moon and Leinenkugel Shandy, and according to Nielsen data. By the four-week period ending Sept. 12, it had moved up to No. 2.

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The new drink is joining the ranks of the already popular “malternatives” or “alco-pops” section of the grocery store where beverages like Bud Light Ritas (margarita-flavored beer) and Mike’s Hard Lemonade are sold.

Designed for people that don’t like the flavor of beer but want to have a carbonated boozy beverage while their friends are drinking a cold one, they tend to be consumed by younger drinkers, says Jeff Alworth, the author of “The Beer Bible.”

“It doesn’t taste remotely like beer,” Alworth says. “If you like the flavor of beer, this is not going to be a product you go to very often, because it’s incredibly sweet.”

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The creators of the drinks argue that root beer has more in common with beer than you might think.

While most people know root beer as soda, its history does connect with brewed beer, says Robert Finkel, the founder and rootmaster of Forbidden Root, a “botanic brewery” based in Chicago. Forbidden Root makes a few different brews based on flavors like ginger, chocolate and root beer, and is less sweet that its competitors.

“Mankind has been brewing for 10,000 years, and only in the last 500 years has there been the introduction of hops,” Finkel says. “Root beer is just a broad category of using natural roots to make beer.”

In the 1800s, the beverage morphed into root beer sodas, and beer became the hop-brewed varieties we know today. While hard root beers now are brewed with hops as an ingredient, they aren’t the main flavoring agent like they are in more standard beer.

Tim Kovac, the founder of Small Town Brewery, also has ties to historic beer — he has an ancestor who was a ship captain and made “gruit ales,” from roots, spices, flowers, and berries in the 1600s. In addition to root beer, the brewery plans to keep releasing nostalgic flavors, like a “Not Your Mom’s Apple Pie” as well as ones based on more traditional gruit beers.

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Coney Island Brewing Company, which is backed by Boston Beer Company, which owns Samuel Adams, also rolled out a root beer nationwide this summer. Chris Adams, the brewing operations manager, says that it’s helped expand the brand’s appeal to people that want to try craft beer but don’t like bitter, hop-forward beers like an IPA.

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“It’s expanding craft beer drinkers and the category in general,” he says. “I think it’s a really unique thing going on.”

Curious about the craze? Here are three to try:

Not Your Father’s Root Beer: This has strong vanilla notes and flavors of sarsaparilla, licorice and winter green. Yahoo Food tasters found it to be very close to root beer and so sweet you can’t tell there’s alcohol in it.

Coney Island Brewing Hard Root Beer: This had stronger licorice notes and a more chemically-sweet taste, similar to a diet soda.

Forbidden Root: The least sweet of the bunch, this has traditional root beer flavors with herbal notes like tarragon and basil, and spices like clove and coriander, as well. Currently available only in New York and Illinois.