Luke's Root Beer Pages
Types of Root Beer
In my consumption of root beers across the U.S., I have come across six basic types of root beer. In (roughly) declining order of quality and taste, these are 1) "home made" root beers in local restaurants; 2) root beers made by specialty soda companies or smaller bottlers; 3) root beers made by microbreweries; 4) national root beer brands; 5) supermarket brands; and, the lowest of the low, 6) diet root beers.
The home made root beers are the signature soda of many Mom & Pop roadfood
joints across the land. Some of the finest root beer available is at these
local establishments, though sometimes the quality varies from batch to batch as
it is, after all, home made. This root beer must usually be consumed in
situ, although some local establishments offer it in gallons or will fill up a
container for you.
Specialty soda companies, or regional bottlers, have a long tradition of making fine root beer, and indeed, many of today's national brands (see below) began as distinguished local specialties before being watered down after being bought up by the soda giants. With the advent of the internet, and with specialty soda shops, one can track down these delicious root beers from all over the country with a click of the mouse or a visit to your local deli. Here in San Francisco, I can find at least 30 (!) brands of root beer at my local stores.
Microbreweries have gotten into the swing of things, as well, often offering a root beer as a non-alcoholic alternative for adults and kids. Some of the microbreweries produce excellent root beer, to others it seems just an afterthought. Like the home-made brews of local restaurants, most of these breweries do not bottle their root beer, though many will let you fill up a "growler" (a gallon jug usually filled with regular beer) to take to go; if you are not going far, the carbonation will sometimes last.
National root beer brands are, for the most part, simply colored sugar water. There are a few specialty sodas like Stewarts which have emerged into national brands, which is a good thing, but for the most part the national brands have been dumbed down to the least common denominator. Anyone who had A&W as a kid at a roadside A&W stand knows the difference between that brew (made on site at each restaurant) and the weak imitation now called A&W root beer that you can buy in the store. With very few exceptions, the national brands are best avoided.
Supermarket root beers are the very bottom of the barrel. These are the cheaper versions of the national brands, and are often execrable. I review these on my site for completeness, but most of them deserve to be poured down the drain.
Diet root beers are below the very bottom of the barrel. While I appreciate that 1) people need to diet in our super-sized nation; and 2) that brewers are responding, these root beers are almost uniformly just awful. There is no way to get around the "DIET" taste in large neon letters that accompanies these brews. Hold off on the other bad things so you can have a real root beer!
Luke's Root Beer Homepage + Luke's Root Beer Archive