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Root Beer

Root beer can be awesome or awesomely bad.

My grandmother used to make it, and it was great with homemade ice cream on a hot day! Or even without ice cream.

My favorite bottled is Frostie's. Which, I think, is still made with sugar and not corn syrup (no bottle in front of me).

Otherwise, I've tried some microbrews of root beer and it's just too damned fancy. You don't need to hop it all up with too much vanilla or any of yore fancy-pants syrups.

Root beer should stand on its own, if done right and done well.
 
I love a good root beer, favorite brand being Virgils.

Also if you can find it, their Bavarian Root Beer is absolute heaven in a glass bottle.
 
I just picked up a 10 count sampler Root Beer pack from World Market. It has 5 different brands.

Americana Vintage Soda
Frostie
Dad's Old Fashioned
Bulldog
Sioux City Sasparilla

All of them are made with real cane sugar, which I like. Can't wait to give them a try.

The also had Boylan. This one is a very creamy root beer and very foamy. Excellent taste.
 
My mom told me that her parents used to make root beer. She still recalls hearing caps popping in the cellar!
 
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Tried this Root Beer today. Ginger is an acquired taste for most. But it was not that bad. Only $1 at Kroger. So worth the experiment for me.
 
Personally, I like Hires root beer, inside the resturant. After that A&W. And, after that Ramblin Root Beer. I don't think they really make that any more though.

I have not seen a Hires in a while. They did/do have some great root beer. I am also a fan of A&W (especially in the frosty mug), IBC, Dad’s, and Barq’s.

I have been to numerous restaurants around the country that also make their own root beer. Most have been excellent. I can o key think of one that I didn’t care for and that’s was in a restaurant in Richmond, VA.
 
My very British ex-wife said that only Americans could appreciate the taste of root beer or the novels of William Faulkner.
 
A&W Root Beer Rocks. My local A&W serves it on tap in frosty mugs. Very nice on a hot day.
That was always my favourite fountain soda.
Now that I've become a Type II diabetic, I've had to get the Diet version of A&W root beer. Fortunately, it does not suck. I often have to double check to see if I got the right kind.
I cannot say the same for any diet cola though. They all taste awful.
 
It's really sad how far Root Beer has fallen off the world since this thread started back in '09. Interesting aside, however, you can still get Zatarain's or Hires! Root Beer extracts and 'brew' your own by cultivating a bit of champaign yeast and a good sucrose source. Get a nice growler with a pressure relief valve mounted on your seal cap and ferment only a short period of time before you change that cap for a service valve + CO2 charger/pressure regulator and you can find some of the magic at home again. (edit/ or just CO2 charge the mixed syrup and water + your favorite sweetener, diet or "real".)

But that said, I do miss my childhood when the best thing in the world was a trip on a hundred degree F day to the A & W drive in for a huge frosted glass mug of Root beer float... or just good old root beer. Who the hell thought HFCS was a good idea anyway? Seriously, they'd sell that sorry substitute to their Grandchildren? Just to process Corn? Hell, make more shine out of it FCS!
 
I actually have made it my lifelong mission to discover the ultimate rootbeer, and currently the best I've had is "Virgil's Microbrewed Rootbeer".
It is incredible with about a million layers of flavor ranging from anise to cinnamon. A true must-try for rootbeer enthusiasts.
 
I actually have made it my lifelong mission to discover the ultimate rootbeer, and currently the best I've had is "Virgil's Microbrewed Rootbeer".
It is incredible with about a million layers of flavor ranging from anise to cinnamon. A true must-try for rootbeer enthusiasts.

Where is this usually available?
 
The Abita brewery outside of New Orleans makes a great root beer (and very good beer). I love Barq's in the bottle. The bottle variety tastes more like the original version before it was sold to coke.
 
Zuberfizz creamy root beer from the Durango soda company. So tasty.

I love a good VERY cold root beer. In fact I have a Hansen’s getting very cold in the freezer right now.
 
I started drinking root beer years ago because it doesn't have caffeine. Barq's (Coca-Cola) is usually the only brand available at restaurant fountains but it does have caffeine for some reason. The Publix store brand in cans used to be good but I stopped getting it when they changed it. After reading this thread I'm going to try some of those high-end brands if I can find them.
 
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