I went for a walk today, and after walking around for some time I’d developed quite a thirst. I was near to one of my favorite places Here Coffee and Beer so I decided to pop in and see what they had. Now normally I would have chosen something from their great selection of craft beer, but I wasn’t in the mood for anything alcoholic, so I went over to the refrigerator to see what they had. What I found was a can of Ginger Beer. I hadn’t had Ginger Beer for quite some time. It was quite common when I was growing up in the UK, but nowadays you tend to see Ginger Ale more often. So, what’s the difference? I wasn’t entire sure, so I decided to look it up.
According to Liquor.com:
What Is Ginger Beer?
For millennia, people made drinks out of ginger, a rhizome renowned for both its flavor and medicinal properties. Ginger beers are believed to have originated in the United Kingdom in the 18th century, and historians have unearthed advertisements for bottled iterations from the early 1800s.
The first ginger beers were bright, bracing brews made effervescent via fermentation, and they typically contained 2–3% alcohol by volume (ABV) as a result. The drink’s popularity in the Caribbean grew in tandem with British colonization and ginger cultivation. According to contemporary analysts, North Americans currently consume the most ginger beer worldwide, drinking up to 35% of a global market worth nearly $5 billion.
Many modern ginger beers combine fresh, finely grated ginger with sugar and citrus; some commercial bottlings are made with artificial dyes and flavors. Certain producers amplify the beers’ spicy flavors by including capsaicin, a component of chili peppers. While you can make ginger beer with forcibly added carbon dioxide, traditional versions get their bubbles from a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY), a fermenting agent also used to make kombucha.
Most commercial ginger beers are non-alcoholic, but some contain trace amounts of up to 0.5% alcohol. Others, like Crabbie’s Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer, Goslings Stormy Ginger Beer, and Royal Jamaican Alcoholic Ginger beer, have anywhere from 1% to nearly 5% ABV.
Delicious on its own, ginger beer features prominently in cocktails like the Dark and Stormy and Moscow Mule, both of which complement its piquancy with fresh lime juice.
What Is Ginger Ale?
Once synonymous, ginger ale and ginger beer evolved into different drinks during the temperance movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In response to activists that targeted ginger beer for its mild alcohol content, some producers began to position ginger ale as a non-alcoholic alternative that got its bubbles from artificial carbonation rather than fermentation.
In 1904, after years of tinkering, Canadian pharmacist John J. McLaughlin created a not-too-sweet custom ginger beverage, later marketed as Canada Dry Ginger Ale.
As the 20th century progressed, ginger ale became a popular soft drink and, following the 1933 repeal of Prohibition, mixer in whiskey or rye highballs. Ginger ale is typically sweeter and less spicy than ginger beer, and many modern versions contain caramel coloring and other artificial dyes and flavorings. It rarely contains capsaicin, though the peppers aren’t legally prohibited.
Taken with a Sony RX100 VII
