Henry Weinhardt.
And there’s a company with the same name (apparently a different company though historically related) that makes a damn good lager.
There is an old-style A&W drive-in near Middlebury, Vermont, that still has roller-skating waitresses! (They use in-line skates nowadays, of course)
A Papa burger and an A&W float in a frosted mug, delivered by co-eds on skates. Can it possibly get any better?
As an aside, I have a friend in Scotland who had never heard of root beer, let alone tasted it. So next visit, I brought a bottle (ICB, IIRC) along. I even served it in a frosted mug. He took one taste, spit it out and declared it the foulest thing he had ever tasted. And this from the nation that invented Irn-Bru…
Umm, hello. Virgil’s! Why isn’t that a choice, it’s better than any of them.
As far as can & plastic bottle soda goes, Mug rules. Never even heard of Dad’s.
[Semi-hijack]
My grandfather used to make his own. Not from seltzer water + some kind of syrup but from actual ingredients old-fashioned style. He used an aluminum garbage can, mixing up something akin to 50 gallons of the stuff. I remember bits of orange peel floating on the surface, and it was steaming/smoking with the carbonation (I’m guessing he had dry ice in there?)
Wish I had his recipe just for posterity even if I never tried it myself.
Of those listed, A & W is my favorite. Dad’s used to be my favorite years ago, but I think they’ve changed it since then. Barq’s is also good, but I consider that as more of a root beer flavored cola than a true root beer.
Stewart’s is my favorite. Way better than anything on this list, though IBC is still very good.
A&W from a can tastes so watered down. Maybe it’s better on draft, I dunno.
You have Hires? Does someone still sell it? I thought they stopped making it years ago and it was my favorite!
A & W from my childhood will never be topped. I remember bringing a gallon home (when Pops felt like splurging) in a heavy glass jug. There is something special, aside from nostalgia, about the smoothness of A & W. Even from a can, I can detect and enjoy it.
Hires was good as well.
A few I’ve not seen mentioned yet: Masons and Faygo.
I voted Other, because Mirinda puts out a great root beer here in Thailand. A&W in cans is available here, and there are A&W root-beer shops, where you can get root-beer floats along with hamburgers and ice-cream waffles and such, but the canned stuff is never as good as in the shops.
In the US, may favorite was probably Dad’s. I recall my father always buying it way back when. Is it still around?
Years ago on the SDMB there was a thread in which somebody asked what in American cuisine is as weird to outsiders as vegemite is to Americans. As it developed, a lot of people outside the U.S. consider America’s taste for root beer bizarre.
Yeah, it’s come up a few times. I believe the major problem is the taste of wintergreen – something we only use here in antiseptic ointments and liniment.
Do any of the root beers in the US not taste of wintergreen?
Voted ‘Other’. Sprecher root beer - smooth, with a robust flavor. Barqs and other mass-marketed ‘root beers’ always seem to be too carbonated to be able to actually taste and appreciate the root beer flavor.
I haven’t had a tap A&W in a long time, but I remember that it used to be pretty decent back in the day.
I drink diet, but voted Barq’s for it’s bite. 
I will admit, though, that tap A&W is pretty good too.
Root Beer actually is kind of foul though. First time I tried it I had that similar reaction but you grow to love it.
Russians have kvas. Now, THAT’S disgusting (although kind of good).
Agreed. The diet version of IBC is vile.
On the occasions I drink the sugar versions, I prefer IBC or Henry Weinhardt.
It was close for me between Mug and A&W, but I voted Mug.
I don’t really care for Barq’s. I don’t like the bite.
Now I’m wondering if I’m misremembering Faygo as Fanta after 30 years.
Henry Weinhardt’s. No doubt about it.
I grew up with A&W, Dad’s and Hires. All champions in their own right.
But then someone made me a root beer float with IBC and Golden Vanilla Ice Cream…daaaaaaaaaaaaaaayummmmmmmmmmm! We have a winnnnnnnnah!
Barq’s has caffeine, and thus is not a part of this poster’s refrigerator.