Top 10 ROOT BEER brands

[SuperGabers]

Nothing beats homemade Root Beer...

...and for those of you who are soda connoisseur living in LA, go visit this guy. I think I would be his number one customer...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPbh6Ru7VVM&feature=player_embedded"]YouTube- Obsessives: Soda Pop - CHOW.com[/ame]

[ERCougar]

Nothing beats homemade Root Beer...

If you're talking the "add root beer extract to dry ice, water, and sugar" method, yeah, there are a lot of things that beat homemade rootbeer. If you're talking some special home brew that you put together, well, now we're talking. I've never tried it, but I've heard it's not at all an easy process.

[TripletDaddy]

Nothing beats homemade Root Beer...

...and for those of you who are soda connoisseur living in LA, go visit this guy. I think I would be his number one customer...

YouTube- Obsessives: Soda Pop - CHOW.com

I am going to check that store out! Very cool.

I usually go to BevMo for a pretty decent selection of weird sodas. This place probably has everything.

[SuperGabers]

If you're talking the "add root beer extract to dry ice, water, and sugar" method, yeah, there are a lot of things that beat homemade rootbeer. If you're talking some special home brew that you put together, well, now we're talking. I've never tried it, but I've heard it's not at all an easy process.

Okay... You got me on the extract, but come on! It's dry ice!!! What is more fun than dry ice?

I am going to check that store out! Very cool.

I usually go to BevMo for a pretty decent selection of weird sodas. This place probably has everything.

Go and report, DDD.

[falafel]

I am going to check that store out! Very cool.

I usually go to BevMo for a pretty decent selection of weird sodas. This place probably has everything.

I've seen that guy on tv before. I would really like to check out his store. Please go and post a report DDD!

[ERCougar]

For Christmas, my mom gave me a "Great American Rootbeers" sampler pack--eight bottles of rootbeer in one of those 8-bottle cardboard cartons. Seeing a bottle of Dad's as one of the prominently featured brews, I didn't look too closely at the others and just set it aside, thinking that it was a nice thought.

But...Over the last couple of weeks, I've worked my way through the rest of the pack and found some great new root beers. Now, I'm checking this thread and finding three of the four brands on SG's top 10--Bulldog, Americana, and Sioux City. Even the Dad's was good, and definitely not the same brew that's in stores (why is that???). I'll have to find out where my mom found this pack because I can't get any of these around here (our Lin's does carry Sprechler, Virgil's, IBC, and Weinhardt's--not bad for our sleepy little town).

[oxcoug]

I had a time where I got really into rootbeer, like to the point where I was ordering rootbeers from all over the country at about $3 a bottle. Lame, I know, but it was my latent oenophile expressing itself in its own Mormon way.

I'm glad there is another Sprecher's fan...good rootbeer although seeing as you can purchase this in several grocery stores, I might have looked down a little on this one in my older days. As far as widely available rootbeer though, i think it's the best.

Weinhardt's is also good, but it's not Sprecher's. Some people just don't like Sprecher's because it's a little different, so I wouldn't fault wuap for liking this one.

IBC--meh. Can't agree with you on this one.

A couple of my faves of the less commonly found variety:
Virgil's
XXX
Bulldog

(I just noticed you already named Bulldog--meaning that this one's a little more common than i thought)

I think IBC is unexceptional. I'd just as soon drink Mug or A&W.

I love Sprecher's.

I love Virgil's.

A local/regional unsung darkhorse - Dominion Root Beer. I only find it in Virginia, where it's brewed, but it's a fav.

http://www.olddominion.com/the-roots-of-our-root-beer/

[Eddie]

If you're talking the "add root beer extract to dry ice, water, and sugar" method, yeah, there are a lot of things that beat homemade rootbeer. If you're talking some special home brew that you put together, well, now we're talking. I've never tried it, but I've heard it's not at all an easy process.

When I was a kid we lived out of the country for a while, and rootbeer is a decidedly American thing. So my dad would brew his own stuff. In all honesty, I don't remember much of the details. What I do remember is that we would save old bottles from other sodas at the store, wash them out, and use them to bottle his brew. He had some kind of bottle top press that would seal a new bottle top on it after we filled the bottles.

Then we had to let them sit for a while before we could drink them.

I remember they were good. But then again, most kids my age at the time would drink any soda given to them.

[Uncle Ted]

When I was a kid we lived out of the country for a while, and rootbeer is a decidedly American thing. So my dad would brew his own stuff. In all honesty, I don't remember much of the details. What I do remember is that we would save old bottles from other sodas at the store, wash them out, and use them to bottle his brew. He had some kind of bottle top press that would seal a new bottle top on it after we filled the bottles.

Then we had to let them sit for a while before we could drink them.

I remember they were good. But then again, most kids my age at the time would drink any soda given to them.

My mother would brew root beer with yeast. Basically you mix up a batch of root beer extract, sugar, and baker's yeast. Put the mixture in bottles and cap them with lids. My mother then would have us take the bottles out to a warm shed and store them for about two weeks. Every now and then a bottle would blow up during the brewing. It made some really good root beer with a kick.

I found this how-to on-line:

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Root-Beer

[falafel]

We have a soda and candy store near our house called rocket fizz. It might be a chain, I don't know. They have something like 30 different your beers. My don and I have decided to try them all. So far my favorite is one from louisiana. Sadly, I can't remember the name of it right now. Something with an A. Very tasty.

Sent from my Sprint EVO 4G

[falafel]

I should add that I haven't tried many of the ones on his list. For now, Weinhardt's is my favorite.

Abita Springs root beer from Louisiana isn't bad.

Thats the one!

Sent from my Sprint EVO 4G

[Surfah]

My mother would brew root beer with yeast. Basically you mix up a batch of root beer extract, sugar, and baker's yeast. Put the mixture in bottles and cap them with lids. My mother then would have us take the bottles out to a warm shed and store them for about two weeks. Every now and then a bottle would blow up during the brewing. It made some really good root beer with a kick.

I found this how-to on-line:

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Root-Beer

My family made some once too. I didn't know it wasn't ready though.

[eldiente]

Best Root Beer hands down

http://www.zuberfizz.com/

[happyone]

My mother would brew root beer with yeast. Basically you mix up a batch of root beer extract, sugar, and baker's yeast. Put the mixture in bottles and cap them with lids. My mother then would have us take the bottles out to a warm shed and store them for about two weeks. Every now and then a bottle would blow up during the brewing. It made some really good root beer with a kick.

I found this how-to on-line:

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Root-Beer

When I was a kid in Oklahoma, one of the members of the High Council always provided home brewed root beer made this way for the Stake Fathers and Sons outing. We called him Rootbeer Harry. I never cared for the root beer that much - too yeasty tasting. The guy later became the head of Salt Lake County Health Department, Harry Gibbons. When ever I saw him on TV it always reminded me those F&S outings and caused a smile.

[Green Monstah]

1. Henry Weinhard's

2. everything else

I agree, except Hank's deserves honorable mention as well.

IBC is disgusting. It's Dad's in a bottle.