By Molly Snyder Senior Writer Published Feb 03, 2009 at 5:31 AM

"Bar Month" at OnMilwaukee.com is back for another round! The whole month of February, we're serving up intoxicatingly fun bars and club articles -- including guides, unique features, drink recipes and more. Grab a designated driver and dive in!

My husband and I are probably not the first to mix up this drink, but we like to think we invented the cocktail we lovingly refer to as "the root beer float."

It all began with a bad batch of homebrewed root beer. My son received a kit to make root beer for his birthday, but the results were a very earthy, sassafrassy soda that wasn’t very sweet.

Consequently, my son -- who had a blast brewing the root beer and now refers to himself as a "home brewer"  -- had no interest in actually drinking the concoction. This meant we were stuck with 12 bottles of rejected root beer in our fridge.

I was about to dump it down the drain when my husband perused the liquor cabinet in a last-ditch effort to find a mate for the pop.

"What about vanilla vodka?" he asked, pulling a half-full bottle from the liquor cabinet.

Sure enough, it was an amazing combination, particularly since the root beer wasn’t very sweet to begin with. However, because you probably don't have a botched batch of hombrewed root beer in your fridge, use diet root beer, or mix with regular root beer for an over-the-top-delicious dessert cocktail. You could even blend ice cream into this bad boy for a Bryant’s-like beverage.

Here’s the recipe:

Root beer, diet or regular
Vanilla vodka
Tall glass filled with ice

Enjoy!


Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.

Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.