IBC for me. Also like Barq's. Unfortunately, I don't really drink sodas though. Been a long time since I've had a good root beer. Used to be one of my favorite beverages to enjoy with a good cigar.
Y'all need to try Abita Springs Root Beer. It's made with cane syrup rather than sugar and tastes wonderful. A close second is Barq's.
Why yes I like Root Beer. My first real job in high school was making it AND frosting the mugs at one of these-
Being diabetic diet drinks are what I look for. (#1)Diet Barq's and (#2)Kroger's Diet Root Beer are my favs. If I can find it, diet Shasta sodas are some of the best diet sodas. Awesome diet cream soda.
The Henry Weinhard's root beer is my all-time favorite - very smooth, not too much carbonation, excellent flavor. Unfortunately, since I have become a diabetic, I have been resigned to my fate of only getting diet root beers. Of those, IBC isn't bad, but I usually have to settle for A&W. Sometimes Barq's, but it was never my favorite. Incidentally, I have only met a few Europeans that truly appreciated root beer. Most I knew (in Germany and Switzerland) said it tasted like medicine to them - although if you have ever been to the Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta, GA, and tried the "Beverly" soda that is marketed in Italy (I believe), you might question their tastes! I did meet a few who loved it - one brewed his own (he didn't quite have the right mixture, when I tried it, so I hope he has improved upon it), and the other ran a business that imported American snack foods, so he kept me stocked with A&W while over there - better than nothing.
My two favorites are made right here is Wisconsin. Sprecher Root Beer: http://www.sprecherbrewery.com/soda.php I might add that their cherry cola is rather good too. Point Root Beer: http://www.pointbeer.com/root_beer.php
According to [this] article, the first recorded "root beer" was brewed in the American colonies, so it's not surprising that Europe is not as familiar with root beer. In fact, many of the early sodas were marketed as elixirs and tonics, so they really did taste medicinal. Eg, "Moxie", which is still available in New England, was originally sold as a nerve food... the FDA made them take Cocaine out of the ingredients in 1906... Moxie tastes absolutely horrible in my opinion, but my grandparents loved it. When I was very young my dad brewed "root beer" in the basement. For some reason, I wasn't allowed to drink it... for all I know, it was more "beer" than root, LOL. Anyway, one day a bottle exploded, setting off a chain reaction that pretty much wiped out all the other bottles on the shelf and created a huge mess. My mother forbid him to make any more. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVrDUD6Shwc During my school years Stewart's and A&W Root Beer were the popular root beers... for many years, you could only get their root beer as draft (ie, no bottles). They had their "stands" everywhere that brewed kegs of the stuff and dispensed it to their customers in frosted mugs. These stands also sold ice cream and later, hamburgers and hot dogs, etc. McDonalds became popular in the late 1950s... but McDonalds didn't sell root beer, so if you were a die hard, you continued to hook up with your friends at the A&W drive-in. Gradually most Stewart's and A&W's closed as McDonalds became more popular and prevalent. But there are still a few surviving... A&W is now owned by the same company that owns Long John Silvers and in my area they often are located in the same restuarant. Other root beer brands from those times were Hires and Dad's, both of these were also available in bottles. Dad's was my favorite soda back then (we just called it "pop" where I grew up). I don't drink much soda these days, but IBC Root Beer is pretty good by my standards. I also like their Birch Beer, which is really a "root" beer in the generic sense.
