Ginger Beer
Ginger beer is a sweetened, carbonated ginger drink, cloudier and hotter than ginger ale, and almost every bottle on a UK shelf is a soft drink with no alcohol or a trace under 0.5%. It began as a fermented brew; most bottles now are carbonated rather than fermented, and the few brewed ones can contain barley. It is the long part of a Moscow Mule, a Dark 'n' Stormy and our own Storm & Spice.
Quick Facts
We keep an opened bottle in the fridge and use it within a day or two; cloudy sediment is normal in brewed styles.
None of the 14 listed allergens. Most ginger beers declare none, but some brewed ones use malted barley and contain gluten (Franklin & Sons’ UK site lists malted barley in its Brewed Ginger Beer): check the bottle.
About Ginger Beer
Flavour Profile
Primary Flavours
Tasting Notes
Hot and spicy with a deep ginger burn, balanced by sweetness and a little citrus; noticeably fierier than ginger ale.
Most ginger beer is carbonated, not brewed
Ginger beer started as a ferment. Ginger, sugar and water were set going with a ginger beer plant, which is not a plant but a jelly-like culture of a yeast and a bacterium, and the drink came out cloudy, sharp and somewhat alcoholic. The Oxford Companion says the earliest ginger beers were fermented like beers and wines, at 2 to 3% alcohol. Most bottles today skip the ferment: carbonated water, sugar, ginger and an acid, filled under pressure.
A few are still brewed, with a non-alcoholic ferment that keeps them under 0.5% ABV. Franklin & Sons’ Brewed Ginger Beer lists a non-alcoholic ferment of water, malted barley extract and ginger extract, which means gluten. Fever-Tree's ginger beer is described as brewed, but its ingredients list ginger root and no ferment or cereal.
It carries more heat and more haze than ginger ale
Ginger beer and ginger ale are different products rather than two strengths of one. The beer carries more ginger and more burn; the ale is clear and lighter. Sweetness is a matter of brand, as the bottles we checked show.
Ginger beer against ginger ale, per 100ml (Fever-Tree’s and Franklin & Sons’ UK sites, read 17 October 2026)
Fever-Tree Premium Ginger Beer
- Look
- Cloudy
- Ginger on the label
- Ginger root and natural ginger flavouring
- Sugar
- 7.9g
- Gluten
- None listed
- Alcohol
- None
Franklin & Sons Brewed Ginger Beer
- Look
- Cloudy
- Ginger on the label
- Ginger extract in a non-alcoholic ferment with malted barley
- Sugar
- 11g
- Gluten
- Lists barley
- Alcohol
- None
Fever-Tree Premium Ginger Ale
- Look
- Clear
- Ginger on the label
- Natural ginger flavouring
- Sugar
- 7.2g
- Gluten
- None listed
- Alcohol
- None
Alcoholic ginger beer
- Look
- Varies
- Ginger on the label
- Fermented ginger
- Sugar
- Varies
- Gluten
- Check the label
- Alcohol
- Check the label
| Bottle | Look | Ginger on the label | Sugar | Gluten | Alcohol |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fever-Tree Premium Ginger Beer | Cloudy | Ginger root and natural ginger flavouring | 7.9g | None listed | None |
| Franklin & Sons Brewed Ginger Beer | Cloudy | Ginger extract in a non-alcoholic ferment with malted barley | 11g | Lists barley | None |
| Fever-Tree Premium Ginger Ale | Clear | Natural ginger flavouring | 7.2g | None listed | None |
| Alcoholic ginger beer | Varies | Fermented ginger | Varies | Check the label | Check the label |
The mule family runs on its heat
The Moscow Mule is credited, by the Oxford Companion’s account, to 1941 at the Cock ’n Bull pub in Los Angeles, where Heublein’s president John Martin, promoting Smirnoff vodka, met the owner, Jack Morgan, who wanted to sell his branded ginger beer. A competing account places it in New York, and the Companion calls the story that the bar had copper mugs on hand possibly apocryphal; choose one lined with stainless steel, since the US FDA Food Code bars copper from contact with acidic food, such as fruit juice. The same frame takes Irish whiskey in the Dublin Mule, tequila and cassis in El Diablo, and spiced rum in our Pack Mule.
The Dark 'n' Stormy belongs to Gosling's rum
Goslings of Bermuda mark Dark ‘n Stormy ® on their own site as the signature cocktail made with their Black Seal Rum, and the Oxford Companion records the family’s trademark claim of 1991, while Difford’s Guide says Gosling’s first trademarked the name in the late 1970s. Our Dark ‘n’ Stormy uses their rum: 100ml of ginger beer with 60ml of Black Seal floated on top. Spiced rum does not stand in for it. Ginger beer with spiced rum is its own drink, and Storm & Spice is ours: 150ml of ginger beer, 15ml of lime and the rum floated last.
Using Ginger Beer
Usage
Our recipes pour 60 to 150ml over a glass packed with ice: 90ml in the Dublin Mule and El Diablo, 120ml in the Moscow Mule, 150ml in Storm & Spice. It usually goes in last; in a Dark 'n' Stormy it goes in first and the rum floats on it.
Pro Tip
When a Mule tastes of sugar and lime and little else, change the ginger beer before the spirit. A hotter, drier bottle at the same 120ml does more for the drink than an extra 10ml of vodka.
Top Tips
- Taste it on its own before mixing. A ginger beer that is mild and sweet alone will be milder still under spirit and lime.
- Read the label for ginger root or a ferment near the top. Ginger flavouring alone usually means less bite.
- Look for barley on the label if gluten matters; some brewed bottles ferment with malted barley extract.
- Open a small bottle for one or two drinks. Even resealed and cold, an opened ginger beer is spent within a couple of days.
Possible Substitutions
- Ginger Ale: clearer and milder: a different drink, not a weaker one
Production Method
Most bottles are carbonated water and sugar flavoured with ginger, as root, extract or flavouring, with an acid. A few are brewed: a non-alcoholic ferment of ginger, sugar and water, sometimes with malted barley, kept under 0.5% ABV. Home ginger beer is fermented with a ginger beer plant, a culture of yeast and bacteria.
History & Context
The Oxford Companion, a secondary source, says the earliest ginger beers were fermented like beers and wines, at 2 to 3% alcohol, and that advertisements for bottled ginger beer appear in the early 1800s, among the first flavoured carbonated waters. Harry Marshall Ward described the ginger beer plant to the Royal Society in 1891 as a jelly-like, symbiotic association of a yeast and a bacterium. Most modern bottles are carbonated soft drinks rather than brews.
More to explore
Common Questions
What is ginger beer?
Is ginger beer alcoholic?
What is the difference between ginger beer and ginger ale?
Does ginger beer contain gluten?
Why is ginger beer cloudy?
What ginger beer should I use in a Moscow Mule?
Can I make a Dark 'n' Stormy with spiced rum?
How long does ginger beer keep once opened?
Sources.
Checked between 17 October and 19 October 2026.
- The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (Darcy O’Neil), “ginger ale and ginger beer” (secondary source: the earliest ginger beers fermented at 2 to 3%; bottled ginger beer advertised in the early 1800s).
- The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (Paul Clarke), “The Moscow Mule” (secondary source: 1941 at the Cock ’n Bull, Los Angeles; Martin and Morgan; a competing New York account; the copper-mug story possibly apocryphal).
- Goslings, “Dark ‘n Stormy ®” (the owner’s page: Dark ‘n Stormy ® with Goslings Black Seal Rum; no register entry read).
- Fever-Tree (UK), “Premium Ginger Beer”.
- Fever-Tree (UK), “Premium Ginger Ale”.
- Franklin & Sons, “Brewed Ginger Beer”.
- The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (Paul Clarke), “Dark and Stormy” (secondary source: the Gosling family’s 1991 trademark claim and the USPTO).
- The Royal Society (catalogue record, Harry Marshall Ward), “The “ginger-beer plant”, and the organisms composing it (paper, 1891)” (primary: Ward’s own summary of a jelly-like symbiotic association of a Saccharomycete and a Schizomycete in home-made ginger-beer fermentations).
- US Food and Drug Administration, “Food Code 2022, 4-101.14 Copper, use limitation” (primary: copper and copper alloys may not be used in contact with food with a pH below 6, such as vinegar, fruit juice or wine).
- Difford’s Guide, “Trademarking cocktails” (secondary source: the Dark ’N Stormy is owned by Gosling’s, first trademarked in the late 1970s; the Painkiller by Pusser’s).
Styles of ginger beer
Made with Ginger Beer
Featured In These Cocktails
Show all 13 cocktailsShow fewer
Often Used With
Guide by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026