Australia's Best Alcoholic Ginger Beers
The alcoholic ginger beer market has undergone exponential growth over the last 12 months, the number of packaged ginger beers available has increased from approximately 10 readily available packaged ginger beers (most with limited distribution) to over 30 with the likes of Matilda Bay (Carlton) & James Squire (Lion) all vying for a slice of the growing market.
Brookvale Union, Lick Pier & Matso's ginger beers were the pioneering alcoholic ginger beers in Australia. Matso's Ginger Beer was the forerunner released in 2000, Lick Pier's in 2011 & Brookvale Union's in 2013. Brookvale Union's ginger beer has since become and remains the best selling alcoholic ginger beer in Australia. Post 4 Pines' (and in effect Brookvale Union's) purchase by Carlton, it wasn't long before Matilda Bay released an alcoholic ginger beer with a recipe & taste was very similar to it's Carlton stablemate.
Alcoholic ginger beer is a unique market as the ingredients and process involved in making alcoholic ginger beer generally differ greatly producer to producer which makes for a very varied mix of products available in the market. The bigger players Brookvale Union & Matilda Bay (Carlton), Eumundi, James Squire & Little Dragon (Lion) all use a very similar recipe resulting in alcoholic ginger beers that all taste good but are very similar:
| Producer | Ingredients |
| Brookvale Union |
water, cane sugar, alcohol, natural ginger flavours, citrid acid (330), preservative (211), fresh ginger
|
| Eumundi |
carbonated water, sugar, neutral spirit, flavours, acidity regulator (330), preservative (211), ginger juice
|
| James Squire |
carbonated water, sugar, neutral spirit, flavours, acidity regulator (330), preservative (211), ginger juice, colour
|
| Little Dragon |
water, cane sugar, alcohol, natural ginger flavours, citric acid (330), preservative (211)
|
| Matilda Bay |
water, cane sugar, ethanol, natural ginger flavours, food acid (330), preservative (211)
|
The alcoholic ginger beers brewed by craft breweries such as Aether, Boston, Hairyman, Spinifex, Tumut River & Welders Dog generally taste very different to those made by the bigger players. This is primarily down to the fact that these smaller breweries generally brew their ginger beers like regular beers beers as opposed to being fermented from corn sugar or ethanol diluted with water with flavouring added.
If you want to try a mix of the above brands and ginger beers, our Ginger Beer Gifts take the hassle out of trying to source them in local bottle shops, which can be a bit of a challenge due to their popularity and the fact that few bottle shops generally stock more than a couple of brands.
Ginger Beer or Ginger Ale?
There is a common misconception that the term Ginger Beer applies to both alcoholic and non alcoholic ginger beer, this is not the case. Ginger Beer is the name applicable to alcoholic ginger beer. Non alcoholic ginger beer should be called Ginger Ale but due to a lack of adherence to the correct naming by big brands such as Bundaberg, the distinction between the two terms has lost meaning and Ginger Beer has become the catchall for both with the alcoholic ginger beers generally denoting that they are "alcoholic" on the label.
Have any questions in regards to the above? Have we missed something? Let us know if the comments.
Cheers 🍻