Ginger Beer

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Homemade ginger beer

Ginger Beer ( listen ? / I ; English for ginger beer ) is a carbonated , mostly non-alcoholic, hot and sweet soft drink with a strong ginger taste . The soft drink ginger beer is similar to ginger ale in this respect , but contains more ginger and therefore tastes more intense, spicier and hotter and often also contains citrus juices. In contrast to ginger ale, it is usually cloudy. Audio file / audio sample

Contrary to what the name suggests, Ginger Beer is not about beer , but mostly about lemonades . As before, alcoholic ginger beers are also offered. Historically, the alcoholic fermentation in the production of ginger beer was primarily used to add carbonic acid to the drink; the alcohol content remained comparatively low.

History and manufacture

The origins of the ginger beer go back to the 18th century. It was exported from Great Britain to the North American colonies, among others.

Originally, ginger beer was an alcoholic drink as it was fermented similar to beer or wine . In the 19th century, the alcohol content fell from 11 percent to less than 2 percent. It was common practice in many households to brew ginger beer yourself. Homemade ginger beer was a popular soft drink in the British Isles. For production, it was fermented with the help of a jelly-like mass consisting mainly of a yeast fungus Saccharomyces florentinus and the bacterium Lactobacillus hilgardii . The origin of this ginger beer plant is unknown. It was widespread in the British Isles from the second half of the 19th century to well into the first half of the 20th century, and was passed down from family to family and spread to North America.

In a publication from 1939, Charles Baker names two recipes for ginger beer that are particularly well known. The older, General JKL Harkrider's Ginger Beer , was said to have originated in rural England around 1766, making it one of the oldest traditional recipes for a temperance beverage (for example, 'non-alcoholic drink for teetotalers'). As ingredients he names "2½ pounds of sugar, 2 ounces of ginger, ½ ounce of tartar , 2½ gallons of boiling water, juice and peel of 4 lemons, 2 teaspoons of fresh brewer's yeast " and sugar to taste. He discovered the second, even simpler recipe in London; it was 60 years old and came from a certain Dr. Pereira. It contains neither tartar nor yeast, it is sweetened with sugar and honey and the ginger beer is refined with egg white before bottling .

Ginger Beer Seller in London (1877)

In his book Street Life in London , published in 1877, Adolphe Smith described in detail the trade of ginger beer sellers and estimated their annual sales in London alone at 300,000 gallons , which corresponds to around 5.5 million servings of 0.25 liters. Most of them were small street vendors from the lower classes, for whom it was attractive to sell homemade ginger beer, since the production required little capital investment. To make a bulk (144 servings between 0.25 and 0.3 l), 3 pounds of ginger were boiled in a good 40 liters of water - often in the family's hot tub. After the ginger was boiled, citric acid , a little clove essence , yeast and sugar were added and the liquid was drawn into bottles that had to be stored for at least 24 hours. To strengthen the acidity, sulfuric acid is said to have been used occasionally . Smith continued: “On scorching hot summer days, light, refreshing beverages are in high demand, and if you have enough with you as a seller or a friend who brings you supplies in the afternoon, you can take in a whole pound in a day . In normal times, a profit of 20 shillings per week is seen as a fair wage for selling ginger beer on the street. ”A good point of sale was the area around the closed pubs on Sunday mornings, when the hard drinkers were happy to have their throats dry after the carousing the night before to refresh. Ginger beer is particularly suitable for restoring the voice and alleviating the consequences of excessive alcohol consumption. This makes it clear that even then, ginger beer had a very low alcohol content at best.

Ginger beer was also known and loved in the United States . According to the Haley's Steward & Barkeeper's Manual , published in 1867 , there were many options for making aerated ginger beer ('bubbly ginger beer'). A particularly clear and simple result can be achieved by mixing soda water with ginger syrup made from sugar, water and ginger. This was an unfermented, cold brew, in contrast to ginger wine , in the production of which the ginger extract was first boiled and the sugared, cooled mixture finally fermented with yeast, lemon wedges and alcohol and fermented in the barrel for three months until bottling should store.

Similar recipes can also be found in another drink book from 1867:

“To make good ginger beer. Take 1 spoonful ground ginger. 1 spoonful cream of tartar. 1 pint yeast. 1 pint of molasses. 6 quarts of cold water. Mix, and let it stand a few hours, until it begins to ferment; then bottle it, set it in a cool place: in 8 hours it will be good. "

"Make good ginger beer: Take 1 spoon of grated ginger, 1 spoon of tartar , 1 pint [note: about ½ liter] yeast, 1 pint of molasses , 6 quarts [note: about 6 liters] of cold water. Mix and let rest for a few hours until it begins to ferment; then pull on bottles and store in a cool place: after 8 hours it will be good. "

- John Marquart : Six Hundred Receipts

Other ginger beer recipes in the book are an imperial ginger beer made from ginger, tartar, white sugar, lemon essence, yeast and water, which is to be filled into bottles with tied corks, and a ginger beer sweetened with honey to which protein has been added. There is also a recipe for Ginger Beer Powders , an effervescent powder that you could use in combination with ground tartar and water to make a fizzy drink yourself.

During the prohibition years in the United States from 1919 to 1933, the importance of the ginger beer waned. Before that, there had been around 300 American, over 1,000 Canadian and around 3,000 British ginger beer breweries.

In the decades that followed, Ginger Beer was a niche market and was hardly ever produced commercially. In Germany, only the comparatively milder Ginger Ale from the manufacturer Schweppes has always been available and is the basis for corresponding mixed drinks. Since around the 2000s, ginger beer has become more readily available as an import product and has been sold in Asian markets, among other places, around the same time the popularity of the long drink Dark and Stormy and, especially since the 2010s, the Moscow Mule increased . Ginger beer can be used instead of ginger ale for many other cocktails .

Market launches and litigation in Germany

(Empty) ginger beer bottles and cans from various manufacturers

In 2010, the soft drink company Thomas Henry launched the first ginger beer made in Germany. As with many internationally traded models, it was a lemonade without alcohol. In 2011, however, the Berlin Regional Court prohibited the company from using the sales name "Ginger Beer". In 2012 the Court of Appeal confirmed this decision and stated that the name "Ginger Beer" was misleading in the sense of the law against unfair competition . The average domestic consumer understands "Ginger Beer" as a reference to beer or (beer) ingredients, which are not contained in the product in question. The product was then renamed Spicy Ginger . A little later, Krombacher introduced a ginger beer called Schweppes Ginger B. on the German market . In 2014, the German spirits manufacturer Borco-Marken-Import launched a honey-flavored, so untypical ginger beer called Lupina Ginger . That same year, Brand Garage launched a Herbal Moscow branded canned ginger beer . All products were non-alcoholic soft drinks. Ginger beers were increasingly imported from abroad and distributed in Germany in the following years.

In 2017 there was another legal dispute over the name "Ginger Beer". The plaintiff, a beverage retailer, wanted to forbid a competitor from selling various imported ginger beers in Germany under this name, since they were not produced using beer components while the plaintiff's product (which it in turn sold as "ginger beer") 0.24 grams of barley malt extract is added during production. In contrast to the Berlin courts five years earlier, the Munich District Court I was unable to identify any consumer deception in the designation "Ginger Beer" and dismissed the lawsuit. The members of the Chamber knew from their own experience that ginger beer is a non-alcoholic soft drink or soft drink similar to ginger ale and that it has been sold and consumed as such in English-speaking countries for decades. They based this view on, among other things, the German-language Wikipedia article and the extensive use of the lemonade ginger beer for the production of mixed drinks. In the case of a product that is not sold as "beer" or "beer" but as "ginger beer", the sensible consumer does not assume that it contains beer; it can be clearly seen that it is not about beer, but ginger beer . Ginger beer is therefore not subject to the provisions of the Beer Ordinance , nor does it have to contain any beer components or the product based on the fermentation of barley malt.

International manufacturers

Well-known international ginger beer brands are Bundaberg Ginger Beer , D&G Old Jamaica , Fentimans , Fever Tree , Gosling’s and Thomas Henry . Alcohol-based ginger beer brands are Crabbies's, Hollows & Fentimans (4% vol.) And Stoney’s .

Ginger-flavored beer-like drinks

In the 2013 and from the monastery brewery Neuzelle sold ginger beer it is not a ginger beer, but a mixed drink based on Bright beer , which is mixed with sugar and flavorings.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article about Ginger Beer on sfgate.com (English)
  2. ↑ a b H. Marshall Ward: The Ginger-Beer Plant, and the Organisms Composing it: A Contribution to the Study of Fermentation-Yeasts and Bacteria (PDF; 18.8 MB)
  3. ↑ Ginger Beer Plant on plantcultures.org (English) ( Memento of 8 November 2007 at the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ A b Charles H. Baker, jr .: The Gentleman's Companion. An Exotic Drinking Book . Derrydale Press, New York 1939 (English).
  5. ^ A b John Thomson, Adolphe Smith: Street Life in London . London 1877, p. 72–75 (English, scan of the LSE Digital Library ).
  6. ↑ a b Haney’s Steward and Barkeeper's Manual . Jesse Haney & Co., New York 1867 (English).
  7. ^ A b John Marquart: Six Hundred Receipts . John E. Potter and Company, Philadelphia 1867, p. 54 ff . (English, searchable scan in the collection of the EUVS (Exposition Universelle des Vins et Spiritueux) ).
  8. ^ Donald Yates: Root Beer and Ginger Beer Heritage. In: Bottles and Extras, Vol. 14, No. 2 (April to June 2003). The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, archived from the original on August 21, 2008 ; Retrieved August 14, 2013 (Eng, using: Donald Yates: Ginger Beer & Root Beer Heritage - 1790 to 1930. Self-published, Homerville (Ohio) 2003, ISBN 0-9721506-0-9 ).
  9. ↑ Steffen Hubert: Never again German ginger beer? Lament shakes Thomas Henry . In: Mixology Blog of November 16, 2011, accessed December 8, 2011.
  10. ↑ a b Judgment of the Berlin Court of Appeal of October 12, 2012, file number 5 U 19/12. In: Erection.de. May 13, 2013, accessed on August 1, 2018 (full text).
  11. ↑ Helmut Adam: Krombacher now officially with ginger shower Schweppes Ginger B. on the market . In: Mixology Blog of December 5, 2011, accessed December 8, 2011.
  12. ↑ 5 new non-alcoholic drinks from the Bar Convent Berlin 2014 - nomy. In: nomyblog.de. October 9, 2014, accessed October 13, 2015 .
  13. ↑ a b Regional Court Munich I, judgment of July 3, 2017, Az. 4 HK O 19176/16 , accessed on August 1, 2018.
  14. ↑ Wikipedia article Ginger Beer (June 21, 2017 version) , as it was displayed on the day the judgment was pronounced (July 3, 2017).
  15. ↑ Goodbye purity law? - LG Munich I: "Ginger Beer" for soft drinks is permitted - What brewers and retailers now have to consider. In: LHR Lawyers Cologne. October 23, 2017, accessed August 1, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Product information and ingredients for ginger beer , accessed on September 23, 2013.