Root Beer and Other Beverages

[tree68]

Norm48327

We can't leave out of this discussion what is known as the "Boston Cooler"; Vernor's Ginger Ale and ice cream. Great drink on a hot summer day.

Absolutely!  Thanks for mentioning it - I forgot.

One definite every time I travel to MI is to stock up on Vernor's (and return all the empties...)

[Paul of Covington]

   I'm still trying to figure out what happened here.   Did root beer see the thread on coffee a few weeks ago and get jealous?

[ACY Tom]

Mookie: Thanks for the Hires history. My dad used to find wild sassafrass and cut off a bit of root to make sassafrass tea for us. Maybe that's why I have a prehensile tail now. I've heard that Vernors was developed by a fellow who used to make ordinary ginger ale before the Civil War. He made up a batch and put it into an oak barrel, then put on a blue uniform and marched away to war. When he came back four years later, he tasted the batch to see if it was any good, and was amazed at the transformation. Thus Vernors' slogan, "Aged four years in wood."

[Norm48327]

We can't leave out of this discussion what is known as the "Boston Cooler"; Vernor's Ginger Ale and ice cream. Great drink on a hot summer day.

[BaltACD]

ACY

Oppressively hot, humid summer evening around 1965: Four of us got off work at the super market around 9 pm, and decided to have a root beer drinking contest at the A&W. So we drove out there and had two contests: one for speed and the other for quantity. It think Henry won the speed contest, but I don't remember how many (or how few) seconds it took him to down a mug. His brother Ed won the quantity contest, hands down. I was an also-ran. Coming home, we all screamed in pain when our bellies were jolted as we bounced over the B&O mainline grade crossing. Memories! (BTW, You can still get those chili dogs at the Tallmadge, OH A&W)

I frequented the A&W at Kent in the 1962-64 era!

[Randy Stahl]

There's nothing like the combo of an A&W root beer and coney dog . After a days work baling hay it was the best of times.

 

If we felt like big spenders of course we would order a Papa burger ,Mama burger, Teen burger etc..

 

That and the smell of creosote on railroad ties in the hot sun walking on the way home are unforgettable memories

[Mookie]

Debbie Downer here:

Did a little (very little) research:  Hires - pharmacist - invented root beer.  Main ingredient was sassafrass roots.  1960 FDA banned as carcinogen.  But before that, most of us probably loved the original recipe!  After that there is a variety of items used as a main ingredient.  If you still get and like good root beer, don't look up the ingredients. 

Now about those hot dogs....

[ACY Tom]

Oppressively hot, humid summer evening around 1965: Four of us got off work at the super market around 9 pm, and decided to have a root beer drinking contest at the A&W. So we drove out there and had two contests: one for speed and the other for quantity. It think Henry won the speed contest, but I don't remember how many (or how few) seconds it took him to down a mug. His brother Ed won the quantity contest, hands down. I was an also-ran. Coming home, we all screamed in pain when our bellies were jolted as we bounced over the B&O mainline grade crossing. Memories! (BTW, You can still get those chili dogs at the Tallmadge, OH A&W)

[greyhounds]

Leave us not forget the A&W chili dogs.

Let's see:  warm summer night, A&W drive in, cold root beer, chili dog and fries.  Ford Torino with a 351, four barrel carb and a four on the floor.  Top it all off with a blue eyed blond farmer's daughter sitting next to me.

Those were the days!

[ACY Tom]

What a dilemma! Root Beer & Ice Cream or Prune Juice & Milk? How can one decide? Decisions! Decisions! Decisions!

[Deggesty]

Our black cows were different--prune juice and milk.

[Murphy Siding]

schlimm

   I used to like a Black Cow (root beer float with ice cream).   Vernor's is good.

  Must be a regional thing.  When I was a kid, we had brown cows- Coke float with vanilla ice cream.  We've always called a root beer float simply a root beer float.  

[ACY Tom]

B&K was a small competitor of A&W back in the 1960's, with carhops and all. There was one in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio on the road to Munroe Falls (about a block from CSX's ex-B&O mainline), and it was still there, operating, as of last summer. Still had carhop service, and the root beer was still good. Probably still in business now. On my first trip by car from Ohio to Chicago around 1962, I saw one in Michigan or Indiana. I have no idea how big they were. There could have been a lot in places I never visited, but I don't know.

[schlimm]

ACY

There are still a few places where you can get A&W on draft. I think there is one on Route 30 between Everett and Bedford, PA., and there is an A&W location in Tallmadge, Ohio, that still has car hops. I think there may still be some B&K's, too. my favorites were always A&W (draft), B&K, and Frostie. As for Ginger Ale, there's nothing quite like a Vernor's. I was able to get it locally until recently, but it looks like the distributor has stopped distributing it. That's what can happen to excellent products if the people in charge don't understand its quality and don't promote it.

What's a B&K?    I used to like a Black Cow (root beer float with ice cream).   Vernor's is good.

[efftenxrfe]

This is July, by itself a time machine.

A railroad forum about sweet, herb flavored carbonated beverages and Dog's. Let's go, Run 8...

Dogs...Nathan's Famous, also lived in my hometown of Oceanside....besides Coney Island.

Beverages....,  my mother, from the Far Northwest, loved Birch Beer, hard to find on Long Island in the '40s and '50s. The Far Northwest: of NY state: Buffalo

And root beverages...Gabby Hayes sat down at many a grade B western'  movie's saloon's bar and ordered i'n his nearly perfect old guy, western (movie) accent, "a Sasparilly."' 

I,, on suburban Long Island, drank some Hoffman's. Good. Spelled sarsa parila?

What was or is it, besides carbonated water? 

[tree68]

A&W has probably succumbed to the HFCS devil.  It can still be found, though.  And I do remember the quart "megaphones."

Vernor's Ginger Ale is good stuff, but I don't think it's got the kick it had when I was a kid.  

Some regional breweries are turning out credible root beers as well.  I had some at a local microbrewery, though, that had an "edge" to it - like drinking rock candy.  Not all that good.

[WSOR 3801]

In Waukesha, WI, not far from the Kalmbach offices, is John's Root Beer.  I think it may have been an A&W at one time.  They still make the root beer in the basement every day.  I lived 2 blocks from it, never went there... 

It is also close to the Soo-CNW Belt Line around the east side of Waukesha, which has been since removed and mostly redeveloped. 

Most of those brands are still available. 

[Anonymous]

Stewarts Root Beer here......

http://drinkstewarts.com/

 

 

 

[RKFarms]

We are fortunate enough to have our original Dog & Suds here in Lafayette, Indiana. Root beer is still good, floats are the best! Just don't think about the calories. Vernors is always available at Meijers, sometimes at Target and I have seen it a few times at Walmart. I have to agree it is the best ginger ale.

PR

[ACY Tom]

There are still a few places where you can get A&W on draft. I think there is one on Route 30 between Everett and Bedford, PA., and there is an A&W location in Tallmadge, Ohio, that still has car hops. I think there may still be some B&K's, too. my favorites were always A&W (draft), B&K, and Frostie. As for Ginger Ale, there's nothing quite like a Vernor's. I was able to get it locally until recently, but it looks like the distributor has stopped distributing it. That's what can happen to excellent products if the people in charge don't understand its quality and don't promote it.

[Norm48327]

Still a few Dog N Suds' floating around Western Michigan, Indiana,and Illinois.

[Murphy Siding]

A&W in the ol' cardboard pyramids at a drive-in? Heaven on earth.

[Geared Steam]

schlimm

Brands I recall from when root beer was popular:

A&W

Hires

Dads Old Fashioned

And I recall a root beer drive-in, "Dog 'n Suds"

A&W root beer back in the 60's was something we can no longer experience, it was unbelievably good and a treat as a kid. 

[schlimm]

Mookie

I wasn't aware they had car hops.  I just thought the food appeared on my window!

Most drive-ins back then did.   And Glen Ellyn had the best.

[Mookie]

Johnny, my guess is sometimes they came after the beer(s)

[Deggesty]

Car hops? Were they put into a craft beer?

[Mookie]

I wasn't aware they had car hops.  I just thought the food appeared on my window!

[schlimm]

Mookie

Dog & Suds had the best dogs! 

 

The one I frequented certainly had the best car hops.

[Mookie]

Dog & Suds had the best dogs! 

 

[schlimm]

Brands I recall from when root beer was popular:

A&W

Hires

Dads Old Fashioned

And I recall a root beer drive-in, "Dog 'n Suds"