I am not a fan of the alcopop genre of beers. In my thin experience in drinking “hard” root beer, or cream soda is that it is too cloyingly sweet for me.
So when a PR arm for Small Town Brewery offered up samples of the latest brand extension, Not Your Mom’s. Well, I admit, I thought about responding snarkily. I checked my impulse though and now here are my reviews of the media samples that I received. (in full disclosure, I also got a mini-pie that was not half bad and a cool wooden crate).
The rating system utilized is based on how many ounces of twelve, that I could drink. Damn, there is the snark.
Not Your Mom’s Ice Tea – this tastes like the canned, overly sweet iced tea you would buy from a vending machine with a small/medium hit of vodka at the back. Zero carbonation to cut the sugar. 3 Ounces
Not Your Mom’s Strawberry Rhubarb – the highest ABV and also the most soda like of the group. Aroma is just sweet. Pours a bubbly pink and tastes like slightly fruity 7-Up. 2 Ounces
Not Your Mom’s Apple Pie – there is a ton of cinnamon here which is followed by a tongue slackening vanilla flavor. The taste worsens the more you have. Not much in the way of apple at all. More green Jolly Rancher. 3 Ounces
Except for the iced tea, the alcohol is masked completely. No beer like taste comes through at all. I know that I shouldn’t be looking for that but at least nod in that direction. There is a lot of fake taste here. They may be using top grade ingredients but combined they don’t taste real. They taste like soda pop. And not Whole Foods soda pop.
In addition, the “moms” on the label are all, how do I put this, ample. With plenty of cleavage. I see the name Small Town brewery and Not Your Mom’s so I don’t really want to be confronted with Betty Grable style pin-ups. Maybe I am too sensitive to sexist beer labels from the past.
If you want beer, steer clear of these. If you want sweet, find a place that does beer cocktails.
I actually put the Mom’s apple pie beer in freezer for a couple of hours and it was a little bit frothy and cold when I drank it it was so good like dessert! I’m usually a Corona drinker so this beer was like drinking dessert!! I only had one I don’t think I could have more than two!! Kind of sweet tasting but ok if you want dessert beer!!
That is thinking outside the box! Maybe the chill froze some of the sweet receptors on the tongue.