One of the things I remember from early childhood are A&W Root Beer floats. Now, we didn’t always have an A&W close by, I grew up in some pretty small towns. What we did have though, were big mugs, ice cream, and the Root Beer in a bottle.
I had the pleasure of introducing my wife to the creamy carbonated goodness a number of years ago. How she went so long without the awesomeness I chalk up to growing up in the USA which is not A&W friendly.
Step 1 to enjoying the perfect root beer float, buy the proper glasses. In our case, 
these are direct from the source A&W glass mugs. They don’t make them like this any more folks, sorry. Back in the day A&W had different sized drinks, not the mediums they stick everyone with now. Their large frosted mugs were one of my favourite things growing up. I remember sitting in the A&W (as a teenager) nursing a huge frosty mug after having finished my mozza burger for lunch.
You’ll also need – yummy vanilla ice cream (real vanilla, not french vanilla … well unless you really want), and root beer. A&W is the best, but any kind will work. Though I wouldn’t recommend Barqs.
Step 2 – fill mugs with liberal amounts of ice cream. Don’t be afraid to use the whole carton. I left a scraping in the bottom to eat later.
Step 3 – Begin filling mugs with root beer. Be prepared for FOAM.
The great thing about foam, is that you can drink it to make room for more root beer. The bad thing about foam, is that you must drink it to make room for more root beer.
Step 4 – Slowly continue to fill the mugs up to the top. Try not to stir or pour directly on the same bits of ice cream the whole time (unless you want to liquefy your ice cream faster than necessary). 2 large mugs take just over 1 litre of root beer.
Step 5 – Add straws (and spoon!) and enjoy!
