Small Town Brewery - Wauconda

Easy to miss when they are eastbound on edge rd. but as soon as they get a great place. try the French toast!

I must say... this is one of my favorite breweries that I have ever tasted. It is nothing like your traditional beer and its even better (or the best) of the flavor beers. You really taste what you are drinking. I had the pleasure of doing a tour of the location. It was bought on another website and my initial idea was a long tour with a small time to sample. Completely wrong... it was a long sample with a little tour. Could not have been a better and more entertaining experience. Everyone know about Not Your Fathers Root Beer. According to the owner/creator/?co-owner? this stuff was on the market in 2010. I first became a fan of it around 2012 and I am glad it is easily accessible especially around this location. Gotta love Binnys for that! At this location, there was the 20% ABV which is what got me hooked. And let me tell you.. from the tap... this is much better than when I tried it in a growler at a resturation/pub/tavern in the Chicago. Fresh, sweet, nicely balanced... it really does taste like Root Beer with the oomph of having some alcohol. Ive tried imitations and nothing can touch it. its like the saying.. Often imitated, never duplicated and it holds true to this location. I also tried the 10% ABV Root Beer. It tasted a little sweeter than the 20% but without the oomph due to the less alcohol. Still very delicious. Lemon Lime 10%. Some may think of the Mountain Ale that is sold in stores but the retail version is ~5%. This one is 10%. Maybe trying the 20% first might alter my taste buds. However, I wish 10% was the one that was sold in stores. The retail 5% tastes like water downed flat Mountain Dew. The 10% tastes like Mountain Dew with Lemoncello. This was so good, I had to leave with a 64oz growler of it. Vanilla Cream, 7%. Again. The same hold true regarding the retail vs tap version. But this one was a little less different. The vanilla cream had a strong flavor, but the retail was only slighter different and slightly not as good as the tap. Apple Pie. According to the owner, he said to smell it, sip it, and then drink it. If you do that...you can really taste the apple pie and the crust. This one is one of my favorites even in retail form. You taste the apple, the caramel, the buttery crust. Almond Coconut. This was a mind bender. It tastes like eating an Almond Joy. You first taste the chocolate, then out comes the coconut, and finally..the almond to finish it. It there was ever a candy bar liquidized...this is what it would taste like. The magic behind the flavor is just that...magical. French Toast. Not many things can be said about this. It tastes like an actual french toast. You taste the maple syrup and you taste the butter that must be applied to the french toast. Its amazing but its not a drink that you will chug. You savor it as a dessert after dinner. You treat it like an aged bourbon. If you ever get some time, I recommend this location. Its a good place to have a few great drinks. And I was luckily enough to meet the man behind the company. The creator and the brew-master or even the chef. I learned about his history and his passion behind all the flavors and I learned about his dedication to make a flavor into a beer and not just flavored beer.

I'm pretty sure this brewery makes liquid candy in a beer bottle! Everything is incredibly sweet! We walked in an the atmosphere is def Small Town. I mean come on Wauconda is like 1 mile long lol. Everyone was super cool, and the locals were awesome. My family lives in Wauconda so to here the famous Root beer is from this brewery obviously we had to stop in.. Next time I'm in town I'll stop by to try the next drink! Suggestions- This is not regular beer. This is alcoholic candy don't think you can get hammered on this stuff. It's like the prefect dessert beer. It was pretty difficult trying the flights and finishing them all as a group. (side note)-I don't drink sugary drinks often so that's my personnel opinion. Moose out

Yeah... no. I wish there was some sort of explanation from the bartenders, the waiters or on the menu which tell you, these are NOT typical beers. Not even in the slightest. They should market these are flavored syrups. There wasn't one drinkable beer Each one tasted like 5 lbs of sugar mixed with concentrated extract of the flavor. Maybe if they warned us, our take on this place would have been different. If you order Blue Moon or Hoegaarden, which are brewed with orange peels, you wouldn't expect it to taste like sugary orange soda. It's just common sense. Welp, not with this brewery! When you order the Lemon Lime beer and it literally comes out tasting like flat Mountain Dew but with more sugar. Or when you order the French Toast beer... it tastes like a bottle of maple syrup. This is definitely a niche brewery. Not meant for everyone and a waste of our group's money. We just wished they would have explained it to us.

Wow, what a great brewery! I would definitely recommend you call and schedule a brewery tour (they fill up fast The brewery tour gives you the full experience that a flight can't give you. You get to sample the drinks, hear the amazing story of how Small Town Brewery came to be, and learn about their unique brewing process. The drink options change, so it will be nice to come back and try some new samples. I've gone on many brewery tours, and this is one of the best so far! I highly recommend, and will definitely be back to try the new recipes!