How Irish-made ginger beer has become a booming trend
Refreshing, cooling and effervescent, ginger beer is ideal on its own over ice but is also a top addition to cocktails like a Moscow Mule and usually sits around the 4 per cent ABV mark.
You have probably seen a couple of producers crop up in cans and bottles around the country, but ginger beer is becoming an increasingly popular draft option in select outlets across Ireland.
We delve into five different Irish ginger beer producers to get a taste of this exciting new frontier of the Irish craft drinks industry.
Zingibeer
"When we launched nearly four years ago during the pandemic, we were the first Irish-made ginger beer and then the first ginger beer on draft," Zingibeer co-founder Rachel Byrne explains, "and since then several others have entered the market, which is a good sign the category is growing pretty quickly".
The Dublin-based ginger beer brand is a family business, with Rachel's father Kevin as head brewer, bringing over 20 years of experience in food manufacturing. Kevin's lifelong hobby of home brewing turned into a business by starting Dublin's Persistence Brewing Company, which supplied craft brews on keg to a number of locations around Dublin.
However, with the onset of the pandemic and on-trade closures and lockdowns, business disappeared overnight. This quiet time sparked innovation and a pivot to producing the perfect ginger beer recipe.
"We were working from a tiny warehouse in Smithfield and all we could do was draft because we didn't have a bottling line so started putting kegs out into the trade, and people were like "oh my God, this is really different, we have never had ginger beer on draft before and even better that it's Irish," Rachel explains, "so that's when we knew we had something".
Zingibeer, like a number of other ginger beer producers, is gluten-free as it uses a gluten-free malt base and puréed ginger root with a handful of botanicals and lemon juice and zest to add a slight cloudiness. "People are often surprised how clear our liquid is," Rachel explains, "ginger beer is actually quite pale, naturally, as there is nothing that goes into ginger beer that naturally has that kind of electric, dark colouring, you would have to add those colourings in".
Aside from kegs and on-trade, they supply kegs to around 15 outlets, from the Dew Drop Inn and Cadell in Galway to Hogan's in Dublin, their best-selling outlet. Zingibeer is also produced in 500ml bottles and is widely available in independent retailers, off-licences and multiple supermarkets.
Their packaged product has seen a 60 per cent growth in the last 12 months alone. Having won a number of Blas na hÉireann awards in 2022 and 2023, Zinigibeer has also taken part in SuperValu's Food Academy and the Food Works business accelerator programme for food and drink start-ups supported by Bord Bia, Enterprise Ireland and Teagasc.
What is driving the growth? "Ginger beer as a flavour is kind of nostalgic but it's also quite modern and new," Rachel explains, "and I see a really diverse age range of enjoying ginger beer, from older customers to students, it actually sells really well in the student market".
"We like our products to prove themselves rather than banging the drum in advance," says Rick LeVert, Managing Director and Head Brewer at Kinnegar, the independent Donegal brewery based in Letterkenny, which quietly launched its 'Jackrabbit' ginger beer late last summer.
"Ginger beer is enjoyed by many consumers who might not drink the 'normal' beers in the Kinnegar range," Rick adds, "they're often younger and it's quite likely that they began their exploration of drinks in a different place to traditional beer drinkers".
Remarked for their craft brews wrapped in expressive illustrations by Dermot Flynn, a long time Kinnegar collaborator, Kinnegar's new ginger beer is no exception. Inspired by a far-flung cousin of the local Kinnegar hares, the name and branding on the new bottle is in honour of the jackrabbits found in the desert areas of Mexico and California.
The ingredients are water, barley, ginger, raw cane sugar, pear and yeast and Jackrabbit (€3.99, 500ml) is available in leading off-licences nationwide and is also popping up on tap in various outlets like Blue Note and Róisín Dubh in Galway and Bonobo, Kodiak and Caribou in Dublin.
Ollie
Brewed by Hopfully Brewing Co. in Waterford City (in the former Metalman Brewing Co. Premises), Ollie uses a pear juice and elderflower syrup base for its Irish-made ginger beer, so it offers a slightly more fruity and floral flavour while also containing double ginger: ginger juice and ginger extract plus a handful of additional botanicals.
It balances citrusy, zesty, spicy and sweet notes harmoniously and uses a gluten-free malt extract and less sugar than some of its counterparts. "Ollie Ginger Beer is not technically a beer," they describe themselves, "but a refreshing alcoholic blend of fresh ginger, water, sugar, fruits, and selected botanicals, fermented with yeast, then carbonated and packaged in 440ml cans (4 per cent ABV)".
Another fun illustrated label, you will easily recognise an Ollie can from its monochrome colouring and the illustration of the tan-coloured dog wearing a cardboard box on its head, designed by Mayo-based illustrator Jacob Burrill. Aside from their signature ginger beer the Hopfully team has also recently brought out a new, special edition yuzu flavour of Ollie, which is a citrus fruit native to East Asia that has a tart, sour flavour, like a hybrid of lemon and grapefruit but with an intense and unique aroma.
Non-Alcoholic Ginger Beers
Black Castle
Black Castle produces a range of craft sodas, which includes a non-alcoholic 'Fiery' Ginger Beer that combines natural ginger root flavouring and extract with zesty lemon and floral pear juice concentrate. Also in the mix are spices like cinnamon, allspice and cardamom, sweetened with a hint of rich muscovado sugar. A great alcohol-free alternative, their suggestion is to serve over ice with a wedge of lime.
Poachers
Well known for its range of mixers from tonic waters and soda waters to ginger ale and ginger beer, Poachers' Irish Ginger Beer is the hottest member of its family and even includes some uniquely Irish components including chilli grown outside Galway, organic Irish apple syrup, Irish spring water and organic ginger and lime zest. They call it the perfect addition to an Irish take on a mule cocktail.
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