Small Town Brewery

Microbrewery in Wauconda, Illinois, United States 🇺🇸
Owned by Pabst Brewing Company

Established in 2012

Closed in 2018

Contact
1000 N Rand Rd, #204, Wauconda, IL, 60084, United States
Description
Small Town Brewery is dedicated to crafting gruit-inspired beers. Gruit–German for herbs–describes the ancient practice of bittering ales with roots, spices, flowers, and berries. Tim Kovac, founder and brewmaster of Small Town Brewery, uses a proprietary technique to infuse a specialty blend of herbs and spices into his brewing process to create gruit-inspired beers with the unmistakable taste of nostalgia featuring classic American flavors.

Admin Note: Small Town Brewery and Taproom have closed after the sale of the brand in 2018. 2019 relaunched with a new brand under the Pabst umbrella with only 2 products. The original owner of Small Town has opened a up a new brewery in Cary, IL under the name Spirit Water

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5.8/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 6 Flavor 6 Texture 6 Overall 5
Bottle shared at Ken’s hotel room, Copenhagen - Dark brown pour with small white head. Aroma and taste is very sweet root beer, sweet body, sweet root beer finish.
Tried from Bottle on 10 May 2018 at 20:39

7.6/10 Appearance 8 Aroma 7 Flavor 8 Texture 8 Overall 7.5
10th May 2018
Hotel tasting. Imperial Hotel. Clear deep amber beer, small pale tan head. Smooth palate, reasonable fine carbonation. Soft malts, little vanilla. Nice sweetish licorice and aniseed, mild spice. Tangy fruits. More vanilla aniseed and licorice. Smooth and well joined up and very drinkable.
Tried on 10 May 2018 at 19:54

4.4/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 5 Flavor 4 Texture 4 Overall 3.5
Bottle from World Market - hey, I was at the pet store next door, so I figured why not? Pours pink, lots of carbonation but no head. Aroma is artificial strawberry - candied fore sure. Flavor is strawberry Kool-Ade, complete with the sugar. There's nothing "tart" here unless you count the face I'm making. It's alcoholic sugar water.
Tried from Bottle on 01 Mar 2018 at 18:47

3.5/10 Appearance 10 Aroma 2 Flavor 3 Texture 4 Overall 2
Bottle at home. This is awfully sweet and tastes like a Smirnoff Ice. Not nearly as good as an actual Dew. Lenin didn't like this either.
Tried from Bottle on 03 Feb 2018 at 02:33

4.4/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 4 Flavor 4 Texture 4 Overall 4.5
Bottle. Pours a golden color with a small white head. Has a fruity spicy ginger aroma. Sweetish spicy ginger flavor. Has a sweetish spicy ginger finish.
Tried from Bottle on 25 Dec 2017 at 17:43

6.5/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 6 Flavor 7 Texture 6 Overall 7
No 'Pie' in words on my label but the lady is holding one in the picture, so same beer. Drank at my daughters place in California on 11th Dec 2017. Pours pink and clear, no head what so ever. Certainly does what it says on the bottle. Intense strawberry aroma and taste with a faint sour/bitterness from the rhubarb, very sweet though, even with that mini rhubarb tartness.
Tried from Bottle on 12 Dec 2017 at 10:38

6/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 6 Flavor 6 Texture 6 Overall 6
Last beer of the day on 10th Dec 2017. 12 Fl oz bottle of 5.5% ABV. Pours a clean golden colour, the wispy head soon left to leave a bald glass of liquid. Austrian Apple Strudel in the nose and taste, cinnamon to the fore with raisins and apples not far behind. Exceedingly sweet throughout, it really is an Apple Pie of a beer.
Tried from Bottle on 10 Dec 2017 at 23:22

3.4/10 Appearance 4 Aroma 3 Flavor 3 Texture 6 Overall 2.5
12 fl oz bottle. Pours hazy yellow. Small white head. Aroma is grapefruity. Citrusy. Mild citric. Sweet, sugarish. Fruity and sweet finish.
Tried from Bottle on 05 Dec 2017 at 19:42

5.2/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 5 Flavor 5 Texture 6 Overall 5
Deep amber to dark brown colored, no head. Aroma is of some vanilla, peppermint, strong enough to feel like mouthwash, some spice, sugary feel to it. Taste is very sweet and sugary, again peppermint mouthwash, vanilla, spices, caramel. Medium bodied, soft to flat. I suppose some people like this kind of stuff... (bottle)
Tried from Bottle on 15 Nov 2017 at 10:18

6.8/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 7 Flavor 7 Texture 6 Overall 7
Thanks Ivan P.! Shared with him, kajser and others from their firm. Erm, okay, Dark brown body with an ephemeral brownish head. The aroma is... wow. Never having had actual root beer (I think) I had no idea what to expect. My friends insisted it was Listerine, but I haven't really smelled that either. But I'm quite sure I'd experienced that same taste in some toothpastes I've used randomly here and there. Sorta like bubblegum, vanilla underneath and sweet. Whatever sweetness there was in the aroma (and there was plenty, it's exponentially larger in the taste, especially when it warmed. I actually dug this "root beer" taste (won't even try to venture a guess if it's sassafras or sarsaparilla), accentuated by the vanilla, but in the end it was too sweet to bear. Surprisingly respectable, different, but... I completely and utterly see and respect people not liking this at all. LeChuck beware!
Tried on 13 Nov 2017 at 11:52