Alcoholic Root Beer Is The Next Huge Trend In Getting Drunk, Bros

Earlier today I read a maddening trend piece in Details via The Telegraph about how dudes siting around drinking rosé a.k.a. brosé is the next big thing in boozing. The Telegraph article had this insane quote about how Bros are cool with getting their wine game on this summer: “If your brosé is the same shade of salmon pink as your Polo Ralph Lauren shirt, you’re doing it all wrong.”

I don’t even know what that means, but I know it sounds like the half-ass musing of an elitist urbanite snob trying to sound like a pretentious d-bag. The person who said those words definitely didn’t get the memo that Bros stopped wearing Ralph Lauren polos around the time Hoobastank’s Greatest Hits album came out.

A REAL booze trend that America’s men and women can embrace, however, is boozy root beer. Good, old fashion root beer with a alcoholic twist. It’s on the cusp of becoming a huge thing nationally, especially after receiving a major PR-push from the media. The leading brand of alcoholic root beer is called Not Your Father’s Root Beer, from Small Town Brewery in Wauconda, Ill. Earlier this summer Small Town set up a distribution deal with Pabst Brewing Company, which is making a huge push to distribute booze root beer around the country. It sounds amazing, according to the press release:

Small Town’s brews are inspired by gruit brewing tradition and recipes passed down by Kovac’s ancestral family brewer from the 1600s. Not Your Father’s Root Beer is spiced with wintergreen, sassafras bark, oak, vanilla, anise, and a host of other spices. The beer’s three variations – 5.9% ABV, 10.7% ABV, and 19.5% ABV – have earned “World Class” consumer BeerAdvocate ratings of 96, 98, and 98, respectively. Small Town now offers Not Your Father’s nationally in a six-pack, 12oz. glass format at 5.9% ABV, with plans to roll out the 10.7% and 19.5% ABV versions in future.

Those high octane 10.7% and 19.5% ABVs are only available in Chicago, where Small Town is also offering chocolate, and apple pie flavored beers, according to Food Beast and Bloomberg. It has decent reviews from beer snobs, too. Probably cause we’re all burnt out on heady IPAs at this point in craft brewing. This past weekend our own Matt Birl tried it. It left quite an impression:

[3:51 PM] Matthew Birl: ^tried my first one yesterday
[3:52 PM] Rebecca Martinson: how was it
[3:52 PM] Matthew Birl: if you were to blind taste test me with a bite of cheese pizza in between, I couldn’t distinguish between what was booze and what was soda.
[3:53 PM] Matthew Birl: literally a flawless recreation of Hank’s root beer + 5.9% abv

He even snapped a pic! What a guy.

It doesn’t stop with Not Your Father’s Root Beer, though. Other brewers are starting to get into the alcoholic root beer game too. Via Bloomberg:

And if you can’t find Not Your Father’s, relax; your local craft operation is probably fine-tuning a root beer recipe right now. Chicago’s Berghoff Brewery announced a new brew called Rowdy Root Beer in June. Meanwhile, Boston Beer, the maker of Sam Adams, is reportedly working on its own version, although the company did not return requests for comment.

I LOVE root beer, so any booze you and put ice cream in is OK by my book. I’m ready to ride this drunken wave.

Take a seat, Brosé.

Brandon Wenerd is BroBible's publisher, writing on this site since 2009. He writes about sports, music, men's fashion, outdoor gear, traveling, skiing, and epic adventures. Based in Los Angeles, he also enjoys interviewing athletes and entertainers. Proud Penn State alum, former New Yorker. Email: brandon@brobible.com