Sarsaparilla, birch beer and ginger ale oh my! Part 2

By OWEN MORRIS
 

Last Friday I discussed the intricacies of birch beer versus sarsaparilla versus root beer and today I’m tackling ginger. As in ginger beer and ginger ale.

What’s the difference? First, there’s the alcohol. Many ginger beers have the stuff while no ginger ale does. Then there’s the ginger itself. Ginger beer traditionally has more of the herb. For instance, the difference between Reed’s Ginger Ale and Reed’s Ginger Beer is 17 grams of ginger per 12 ounce bottle and the beer has 25 grams, giving it a more pungent ginger taste. Finally, there are the spices. Ginger Ale traditionally has other spices added, such as lemon or honey while ginger beer tends to only contain ginger, or low amounts of other spices.

For the taste test I was unable to find any ginger beers.

Strike that. I was able to find alcoholic ginger beers, but I wanted this taste test to be all non-alcoholic. I did find Reed’s ginger ale, Sprecher’s ginger ale, Natural Brew ginger ale and the original ginger ale, Vernors.