Ginger beer
Ginger beer
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Ginger beer

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Ginger beer

Ginger beer is a sweetened and carbonated, usually non-alcoholic, type of soft drink. Historically it was a type of beer brewed by the natural fermentation of prepared ginger spice, yeast and sugar. Modern ginger beers are often manufactured rather than brewed, frequently with flavour and colour additives, with artificial carbonation. The related ginger ales also are not brewed.

Ginger beer is still produced at home using a type of symbiotic colony of yeast and Lactobacillus bacteria (SCOBY) known as a "ginger beer plant", or from a "ginger bug" starter created from fermenting ginger, sugar, and water.

Brewed ginger beer originated in Yorkshire in England in the mid-18th century and appeared in Canada and the United States around 1790. Until the mid-19th century, many ginger beers contained alcohol, at about 11%. In 1855 this became legally limited to 2% in England.

The drink reached a peak of popularity in US in 1920, before Prohibition saw it replaced with ginger ale and other soft drinks. In England and Canada its popularity peaked in 1935.

Brewed ginger beer originated in the UK, but is sold worldwide. It is usually labelled "alcoholic ginger beer" to distinguish it from the more established commercial ginger beers, which are often not brewed using fermentation but carbonated with pressurized carbon dioxide, though traditional non-alcoholic ginger beer may also be produced by brewing.[better source needed]

Non-alcoholic ginger beers are made by brewing, followed by heating to reduce alcohol content to below 0.5% ABV, below which beverages are legally classified as "non-alcoholic" in many jurisdictions. Ginger beer can be served by itself or as part of a cocktail. Ginger beer is more strongly flavoured with ginger and less sweet compared to ginger ale.

The ginger beer soft drink may be mixed with beer (usually a British ale of some sort) to make one type of shandy, or with dark rum to make a drink, originally from Bermuda, called a Dark 'N' Stormy. It is the main ingredient in the Moscow Mule cocktail, though ginger ale may be substituted when ginger beer is unavailable.

Ginger beer plant (GBP), a form of fermentation starter, is used to create the fermentation process. Ginger beer was defined by Harry Marshall Ward as “beverage containing a symbiotic mixture of yeast and bacteria, and containing sufficient amounts of nitrogenous organic matter and beet sugar or cane sugar in its aqueous solution”. The GBP was first described by Ward in 1892, from samples he received in 1887.

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