Not Your Father’s Root Beer, a craft ale which tastes like the sweet soft drink, is flying off the shelves of Maine stores, and local distributors are multiplying their orders to keep up with the unusual surge in summer sales, the Sun Journal newspaper reported.
The niche beverage, which is produced by Illinois-based Small Town Brewery, is still only sold in 30 states.
In Maine, retailers say they can’t keep the product in stock.
“It is unbelievable. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like this,” Mike Obar, sales manager for Central Distributors in Lewiston, told the Sun Journal. “People are coming in and buying it by the case. I happened to be at Shaw’s in Lewiston yesterday talking to the store manager, who was in the process of building a display. We sent them 60 cases. And three customers — while I was there 15 minutes — came in and bought several cases.”
Obar told the newspaper his company has sold 5,100 cases over the past month, and could have sold much more. Central Distributors has tripled its order for August, the Sun Journal reported. Nappi Distributors in Gorham gave the newspaper similar reports of the drink’s popularity.
Roopers Beverage & Redemption Store on Main Street in Auburn sold out of 30 cases in a single day last week, according to the Sun Journal.
Fans of the alcoholic root beer are calling stores and distributors in search of unsold cases, and even taking to social media to find the drinks, the newspaper reported.
“Calling, calling, calling,” Debbie Tremain at the Minot Country Store told the Sun Journal. “They said they’re looking everywhere for it.”
