Parrotdog

That sunset-orange can had me hoping for something with proper ginger bite - the kind that makes you blink twice and question your life choices. Instead, I got the liquid equivalent of a polite handshake. Not offensive, not memorable, just... there. Like a bank manager at a barbecue. The 4.5% ABV suggests ambition, yet the ingredients list reads like a breakfast cereal: barley, wheat and oats? It’s either ginger beer or some sort of granola. Either way, buy it on Parrotdog’s online store.

Garage Project

Only launched in June 2025, which explains why it arrived like a ninja. A very polite ninja. This is ginger beer for when you want refreshment without drama - the Switzerland of the category, if Switzerland were made in Wellington and used rice as a diplomatic envoy to carry the ginger flavour. At 4%, it’s the session-strength option your palate doesn’t need a lie-down after. The rice adjunct lets the ginger do the talking without all that grainy small talk. Available in everything from single-can reconnaissance to full 24-pack commitment.

Aotea Company

This isn’t technically beer (carbonated water, no yeast, no alcohol) and my first sniff had me wondering if I’d accidentally uncapped a bottle of air freshener. Yet one sip transported me to Taipei’s Dihua Street - minus the omnipresent scooter fumes. There’s hinoki wood, temple incense, hotel lobby air freshener and a hint of jasmine. The honey notes are there, but it’s the “Natural Flavours” lending the flavour profile you’ll remember. It’s floral, it’s unusual and it’s available through the Aotea Company’s website.

In no particular order, I’ve listed them all here:

Hawkes Bay Brewing Co

Hawkes Bay Brewing Co offer two non-alcoholic brews, Old Fashioned Ginger Beer and Spiced Ginger Beer. I first tried their spiced ginger beer when visiting HB in 2017. I don’t recall the flavour but love the distinctive bottle shape!

They also offer an alcoholic ginger beer, Ginger Fusion. Confusingly, their website lists it as 5% ABV, the product photo shows 4%, and the bottle I just bought from Liquor Land says 6%!

Hakanoa Handmade

Hakanoa produce two ginger beers, their Dry Ginger Beer and Lime and Chilli Ginger Beer. According to my photo album I was drinking the former during the 2016 Christmas holidays. Truly there are few summer experiences quite like lying on a warm deck drinking ginger beer! Unfortunately not sold in New Plymouth.

Mac’s Soda

This is an odd one - first, I didn’t know Mac’s produced a line of soda, and they make no mention of it on their website. Secondly, this is absolutely overshadowed by memories of Mac’s alcoholic Ginger Brew … but that was about 10 years ago and according to their website they no longer make it. My children describe this ginger beer as “sweet, with a gingery flavour and not spicy”.

Ranga

Alcoholic Gingerbeer (4.5%). Sold at my local New World in unsexy 1.25 litre plastic bottles reminiscent of the scrumpy cradled by homeless men outside Tesco in the UK.

I’ve tried Ranga before but don’t recall anything in particular! I’ll likely update this list with proper notes after sampling them.

Sprig + Fern Brewing Co.

My local New World sells Sprig + Fern’s 4% Grown Up Alcoholic Ginger Beer chilled in 1.25L bottles but S+F’s website also sells Non-Alcoholic Ginger Beer in 330ml cans. The former is quite laid back given its mild flavour (it has a cider base). Those who prefer something with a bit of heat are probably best looking elsewhere.

East Imperial

… produce a line of award-winning tonic waters and mixers, but for this list we’re only interested in their Mombasa Ginger Beer and Dry Ginger Ale.

They’ve gone for a late-empire aesthetic which goes well with their product range - they even have a jazz / world fusion Spotify playlist!

Monteith’s Brewing Co.

Monteith’s is perhaps the most well-known brand on this list with history going back to 1868 but is now owned by DB Breweries which is in turn owned by Dutch multinational Heineken. Despite being overstocked at my local supermarket this 4% alcoholic ginger beer gets no mention on the Monteith’s website.

Zeffer Drinks

Like HBBC, Zeffer also hails from Hawkes Bay - 1747 Korokipo Road in Fernhill, to be exact. Funny story: I was once cycling home on a dark night night from EIT to Flaxmere and got shot at by someone learning out of a speeding car. No idea what that was all about. Anyway, the mean streets of Fernhill bring to you the imaginatively-named Alcoholic Ginger Beer and Hazy Alcoholic Ginger Beer.

Like East Imperial, Zeffer also has a Spotify playlist. Where EI’s vibe might be described as dimly-lit cocktail bars playing jazz / Massive Attack / Bonobo, Zeffer is more hot sand, tanned bodies and endless summer days.

Phoenix Organics

I always bought Phoenix Cola when I lived in Auckland, sadly it doesn’t appear to be stocked in New Plymouth supermarkets. Their site lacks an HTTP cert - not that it’s too important since they don’t have an online store.

They’ve been around since 1986, but apparently haven’t updated their site or social media recently. The ingredients list looks solid and it’s clearly brewed since yeast is mentioned. Another one to try!

Stoke (McCashin's Brewery)

Is a ginger beer still a beer if it’s based on cider? Was the ginger brewed, or just the base cider? Deep and troubling philosophical questions aside, this is a pleasant but inoffensive ginger beer. It’s the first I’ve tried containing cinnamon as an ingredient but it didn’t seem to add much. McCashin’s has been around since 1981 and brews ginger beer under its Stoke brand - Classic Ginger Beer and Alcoholic Ginger Beer at 4.2%. Interestingly they used to also own Macs but sold them to Lion in 1999 - Stoke was launched in 2010.

Monsoon Drinks

Another company hailing from Hawkes Bay (I count three so far!) the Monsoon brand reportedly has a long heritage via its parent company Gilberd Organics dating back to 1860 with the beer itself is inspired by a recipe of similar vintage.

Their store page isn’t the best, with their brand miss-spelled as “Monsson” in the the page’s <title> and the product only has mockup photos. Like Phoenix Organics their site also lacks an HTTP cert. Finally, it’s called “sparkling” ginger beer. If a ginger beer weren’t effervescent it’d simply be a ginger syrup!

Regardless, I’m keen to taste Monsoon’s Sparkling Ginger Beer since they include star anise in the ingredients, something I’ve also experimented with.

Crimson Badger Brewing

Crimson Badger brews Ginger Bear (geddit?) available as non-alcoholic and 4% alcohol. Their website sells packs of 330ml, but I managed to get a 440ml from Liquor Land. Their 440ml, 5.8% Dark & Grizzly containing spiced rum and lime sounds exciting and I can’t wait to try it.

Canyon Brewing

Another ginger beer I have yet to try, Canyon Brewing’s Bang Bang Ginger Beer is 4% alcohol and intriguingly contains black pepper.

This list took suprisingly long to compile and I discovered even more brands I hadn’t heard of when I went out shopping.

Do you know of any I’ve missed? Let me know and I’ll add it to this list!

Ginger beer is a brewed drink. Brewing is a process in which yeast eat sugar and produce alcohol and carbon dioxide as a by-product. This gas is makes beer bubbly!

Ginger ale, by contrast, is not brewed using yeast, does not contain alcohol, and while it still contains carbon dioxide, the carbon dioxide is added to a flavoured syrup to produce ginger ale.

The alcohol content of ginger beer can be measured indirectly by using an instrument called a hydrometer. It’s a long glass tube about the width of your thumb, closed at both ends, weighted at one of them, and containing one or more scales marked at regular intervals. They can be readily bought from brewing supply shops.

Mildly amusing aside: the first time I read the inscription “Made in Scotland” on something other than shortbread or a whisky bottle was a hydrometer I bought while in the UK.

Alcohol content is determined indirectly by measuring the relative density (commonly referred in brewing as “specific gravity”) of the liquid; sugar increases the density (and thus buoyancy), alcohol decreases it. Because yeast consume sugar and produce alcohol (and carbon dioxide) during fermentation, over time the brew will contain less sugar, more alcohol and bubbles.

To take a reading, fill a test-tube (hopefully your hydrometer came with one) about three-quarters, then lower the hydrometer into the liquid. The hydrometer will float higher or lower depending on the sugar content of the liquid. Give it a quick spin to get rid of any bubbles which might affect the reading.

Your first reading should be before fermentation starts (before yeast is added), and then at intervals until you reach your desired alcohol content.

To measure the alcohol content, subtract the final reading from the first. This will give your alcohol content as a percentage. So if your first reading starts at 5% in the yellow “Start Beer” band and your final reading is 0%, you will be left with an approximately 5% alcohol content beer.

In the above photo you can see a reading I took of a recent batch which started at 5% and (ignoring fractions for the sake of simplicity) is currently at 2%. So by subtracting the current reading from the start point I know it’s at approximately 3% - just perfect when ginger beer is a firm favourite with the children in this household!

Now you know how to measure the approximate alcohol content of your favourite fizzy beverage. Keep on brewing and enjoy summer with a nice cold one!

Ginger beer brings exciting memories for me. Carelessly-opened bottles of home made ginger beer erupting all over (and then dripping from) the ceiling. Bottles of supermarket bought “Old Jamaica Fiery Ginger beer” on the table at birthdays and special occasions.

Much later when I had my own children I started brewing my own based off an old newspaper clipping. After half a dozen iterations, this is the recipe:

• 420g ginger root, blended

• 2 teaspoon ground ginger

• juice of two lemons

• zest of two lemons

• 8 cloves

• 2 cups Demerara sugar (I recommend using a light sugar solely for aesthetic reasons)

• 2 teaspoons bread yeast

Quick warning - this is a tongue-tingling, throat-burning ginger beer. If you prefer yours somewhat milder, reduce the quantity of root ginger.

Add everything except the yeast to a large pot then fill with 4 litres boiling water. Boil the mixture for an hour. It’ll probably evaporate about a litre of liquid. At this point add sufficient cold water to match the total volume of your bottles - to fill five 1L bottles, you’ll need to add one litre of water.

Once liquid has cooled to a lukewarm temperature add the yeast. I like to scatter it over the surface of the liquid - if the conditions are right, the particles will first expand and then start falling to the bottom.

After the yeast has started multiplying the beer can be bottled. My favourite are 1L glass swing-top bottles. Place a funnel and a sieve in the mouth of a bottle and use a ladle to pour the beer in.

While the ginger beer is brewing the yeast consumes the sugar and produces alcohol and bubbles of carbon dioxide as by-products. If pressure is not released in some way the bottles may explode. Once bottled, gently open the tops of the bottles perhaps twice a day to prevent this from occurring. This is what I do, and I’ve never had a bottle explode yet.

Let the beer brew for a few days before drinking. Cooling in the fridge will slow the brewing and makes for a very refreshing drink on a hot summer’s day.

Cheers!

Notes:

• Open pressurised bottles slowly. Opening a swing-top bottle too quickly can cause the entire lid and wire hinge to blow off.

• Although the recipe calls for “420 grams ginger root”, I actually use two whole roots which usually have a combined weight of between 400 to 500 grams.

• Don’t add whole lemons! Lemon pith is very bitter and the resulting beer is undrinkable.

• Using dark sugar like muscovado will result in a rather dark and unpleasant looking liquid.