Rootbeer recipes?

Hi all
I have had several disasterous batches of rootbeer and I'm looking for some help. I didn't know of another forum to post this on since it's not beer, wine, or mead/cider. I have two problems.

1. I have no good recipe. My great Aunt just told me she used the extract when she made it and I'm about to do that out of desparation because all of the recipes I tried with roots have been undrinkable. Well, the best was drinkable but not good. Are there any recipes out there or have people given up on brewing from the roots? Oh how I love a good rootbeer. But I haven't made one yet.

2. Overcarbonation. The majority of recipes say to use champagne yeast, which is a DISASTER. It works fast but then it works too fast and if you have 50 bottles you can't store them all in a fridge if only have one fridge. And I just can't drink 50 bottles of root beer in less than a week. And I had tons of bottles explode from this. I tried an ale yeast and this was ok for a bit but then the rootbeer continued to ferment in the bottle in the fridge and I ended up with rootbeer that, when poured, was 2/3 foam. Can I fix this with a different strain of yeast that dies at lower pressure? Or if I want to have a nice rootbeer that I can keep around for on the order of a month will I have to force carbonate? Suggestions?

From what i read, I have no experiance, force carbing is the way to go. If you are brewing beer and bottling it it is a great investment to get a kegging kit w/ a couple of corneys.
And I agree there is nothing like an ice cold Root beer.
good luck!