About

The Spark (1988–2010)

My journey into brewing began in 1988 when I started homebrewing as a hobby while still in college. For over two decades, I experimented with flavors, techniques, and recipes in my spare time while working as an Art Director/Graphic Designer. Brewing wasn't just a pastime—it was in my blood.

When I finally decided to go professional and told my mother about my plans to open a brewery, she revealed a family secret: my great-great-grandfather was a brewer in the 1600s. She handed me a dusty, leather-bound journal of his recipes that would later inspire my brewing philosophy.

In 2010, I co-founded Small Town Brewery in Wauconda, Illinois—a village whose Native American name translates to "Spirit Water." It was a modest operation on the second floor of an old warehouse, but it was mine.

The Game Changer: Not Your Father's Root Beer (2011–2012)

Everything changed in 2011. After brewing a root beer (beer) made with spices and Madagascar vanilla beans, it tasted like root beer but contained alcohol from fermentation. I then boiled it down to create a syrup that was added to water in kegs. We chilled the root beer formula and carbonated it using CO₂ in a large walk-in cooler, rolling the kegs every two to three days. By the end of the week, it was carbonated—and it was the best root beer soda we had ever tasted. People lined up for nearly a mile to try this soda at every event we attended in Wauconda and Surrounding Towns.

Eventually, I asked if we could keep the alcohol in the root beer (beer), and the federal TTB confirmed we could do whatever we wanted. From that point on, I perfected the alcoholic root beer.

It sounded impossible. Root beer is soda. Beer is... beer. But the challenge hooked me.

For 18 months and through approximately 80 batches, I experimented and kept notes. The first attempts were brutal—one version reached 24.5% ABV and tasted like root beer spiked with whiskey. We still make it today; it's tied as the highest-alcohol beer made in America. But we kept refining the product. By 2012, we had three versions: a powerhouse 19.5% barrel-aged, a robust 10.7% that launched us throughout Chicagoland, and finally, a smooth, sessionable 5.9% that tasted exactly like the root beer you remembered from childhood—except this one was actually beer.

We launched in local Chicago bars in 2012. The reaction was immediate and explosive. Binny's Beverage Depot called us constantly. One customer bought a keg of the 19.5% version, and we figured we wouldn't see him for nine months. He came back in three weeks.

Going Global: The Pabst Partnership (2015)

By 2015, we had a problem: demand was crushing us. I wanted to get Not Your Father's Root Beer to the East and West Coasts, but a small brewery in Wauconda couldn't scale that fast alone.

In March 2015, I partnered with Pabst Brewing Company. They brought national distribution muscle while I kept creative control and brewery operations. The results were staggering:

• Not Your Father's Root Beer became the 6th best-selling craft beer brand in the nation.
• We created an entirely new beverage category: "hard soda" or "flavored craft beer."
• The industry took notice—within months, competitors like Boston Beer (Coney Island Hard Root Beer), Anheuser-Busch (Best Damn Root Beer), and MillerCoors (Henry's Hard Sodas) rushed to copy us.

But I wasn't done.

The Bourbon Play: Beating Maker's Mark to the Global Stage (2015)

While the beer world was scrambling to catch up to our root beer success, I was already looking ahead. In 2015, Pabst and I took Not Your Father's Bourbon global.

This wasn't just another product launch—it was a strategic move into spirits that put us ahead of the curve. We beat Maker's Mark, which didn't go global until June 2016, by nearly a year. That head start established the Not Your Father's brand as a cross-category innovator, not just a one-hit wonder in beer.

12 Beers. Global Reach. A Changed Industry.

The "Not Your Father's" line expanded rapidly under my direction. I developed 12 different beer varieties that achieved international distribution:

• Not Your Father's Root Beer (the original, in 5.9%, 10.7%, 19.5%, and 24.5% ABV versions)
• Not Your Father's Ginger Ale
• Not Your Father's Vanilla Cream Ale
• Not Your Father's Mountain Ale

Plus rotating taproom exclusives like French Toast, Bourbon Pecan, and Strawberry Rhubarb.

We proved that "craft" didn't have to mean "bitter and inaccessible." We brought millions of new drinkers into the beer category—people who "didn't like beer" until they tried ours. We showed that innovation could respect tradition while completely disrupting it.

The Legacy

By the time I sold the production and distribution rights to Pabst and opened my new chapter with Spirit Water in 2019, the industry had fundamentally changed. "Hard soda" was now a permanent fixture in every major brewer's portfolio. The lines between beer, spirits, and flavored beverages had blurred forever.

Not bad for a graphic designer from the northwest suburbs who started brewing on a hot plate in college.

Today: I continue to innovate at Spirit Water, developing new beers, wines, and spirits—including unique vodkas, bourbons, whiskeys, and specialty almond liqueurs like "Sunset Spice" and "Grand Amade." The recipes may be old or new, but the philosophy remains the same: "Respect the past, but never be afraid to reinvent it."

Tim Kovac

Founder, Small Town Brewery, now Spirit Water LLC

Creator of Not Your Father's & Not Your Mother's Branding