Dunno straight, but I had a fantastic drink at a restaurant that a co-worker was a partial owner:
Can’t remember the name. But it was dark rum mixed with ginger beer. Fantastic.
It’s like ginger ale with a “kick” or a “bite.” I don’t know why it isn’t more popular than it is.
There are different types of ginger beer, Jamaican ginger beer is a lot stronger than what comes out of other countries. Really spicy ginger beer is great with bourbon (most things are).
My favorite cocktail and a very common one in Japan. Sadly, I’ve yet to encounter a bartender in the US who knows how to make them.
As others have said, it’s similar to Ginger Ale, but with an extremely strong ginger flavor—it’s actually got quite a “bite” to it.
You can get it at Beverages & More (or “BevMo!” as they’re calling themselves nowadays) in California, for about a buck per bottle.
It’s similar to the distinction between butterscotch and butterbeer…
Ginger ALE is like that last swig of melty ice and Coke at the bottom of your McDonald’s cup.
Ginger BEER is like a fresh glass bottle of real (with sugar) Coke poured over ice.
My favorite ginger beer to date is Barritt’s.
So do I. It’s the only soft drink that needs a chaser.
Damn - I need to make me some Ginger Beer. We have a 24 hour recipe that is easy and awesome. But it needs to be handled with care. The last batch I made, I left one bottle a bit too long.
I opened it really, really carefully, and thought I had released all the pressure. Then I flicked the cap off.
It was like watching a mentos/diet coke explosion, only it was inside on my kitchen bench. 2 litres of CO[sub]2[/sub] driven ginger beer hit the ceiling. :smack:
Waste of good ginger beer. I’m gonna start collecting plastic bottles.
Si
You can find ginger beer in a lot of super markets. Also Target that has food often has ginger beer (Jones brand?).
So what’s root beer? I grew up hearing everyone from Beaver to Gidget drinking it always assumed it was US for ginger beer, which my neighbour used to brew and which I hated. Seems I was wrong about root beer, at least.
Root beer is really sweet. It’s kind of what ginger beer morphed into in the US.
ETA my recipe for Petworth Punch.
Tall glass with ice
Ginger beer
bourbon
mar. cherry
Must be enjoyed sitting on a porch in Petworth making fun of passersby.
Root beer isn’t related to ginger beer at all at least in the most general sense. Root beer resembles the old fashioned carbonated beverage sarsaparilla which is also plant based. U.S. root beer tends to have lots of plant based ingredients like sassafras and vanilla but ginger isn’t generally on the list.
Good to know. I’ll continue searching locally. Your ginger beer and lemonade are both very fine.
Chop up some ginger root into a saucepan, add water and sugar, boil, strain, add club soda and *voila *- you’ve got homemade ginger beer. You can make it as strong and as sweet as you like.
I think I’ll have some now.
Should be noted that “golden” ginger ales have much stronger flavors than the more common “dry” ginger ales. The difference between Vernor’s and Canada Dry is substantial.
If you like Vernor’s, you’d love ginger beer. 
When my mother made ginger beer way back when we used to open the bottles in the backyard. Put gently handled bottle upright in large bowl, open at arms length, avoid the geyser, then pour the ginger beer out of the bowl. 
A previous thread on the subject.
I stand by my evaluations. Vernor’s is weak crap. Blenheim’s - ditto. The only one that really gets my sinuses clear is A.J. Stephan’s.
I grew up drinking Vernor’s - a much more flavorful one than Canada Dry, imo. I don’t drink much pop anymore, except the more naturally made types. Virgil’s makes a kick-ass ginger drink, don’t remember if it’s beer or ale, off the top of my head, but it’s way better than Vernor’s or Canada Dry. Never heard of Blenheim’s so can’t comment on it or A.J. Stephan’s.
I once had a ginger ale that was so strong, it burned my mouth and throat and I could only sip it. It was quite tasty though 
Alas, I don’t know the maker, it was years ago and I don’t remember where I was, just that I was on vacation.
Root beer, is, indeed, much like Sarsparilla, but doesn’t have that slight minty flavour to it. It’s easily found in local grocery stores. I don’t remember the last time I saw Sarsparilla anywhere. Root beer and chocolate ice cream is delicious, imo, of course.
I had some ginger beer at The Ginger Man (a bar in Manhattan). Strangely enough it was called The Ginger Man Ale. It was very gingery, like these three sentences. More so than ginger ale.
I couldn’t drink more than half a pint… too strong with the ginger. Maybe if it wasn’t as strong it would have been better.