10 best ginger beers for an alcohol-free Christmas and New Year's Eve

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The origins of ginger beer can be traced back to the colonial spice trade, when the drink was made from a meeting of spices from the East and sugar cane from the Caribbean. As a naturally fermented product, ginger beer contained up to 11 per cent alcohol in the nineteenth century, before being reduced to two per cent by the 1855 excise tax laws. 

The modern (and considerably easier) method of producing ginger beer occurs by squeezing ginger and accompanying flavours into a soft drink base. This more sanitised incarnation of the ginger beverage is often referred to as ginger ale, which is characterised by being less spicy and more carbonated than its ballsier brother. However, the demarcation lines between the two have been blurred by time, and most ginger based beverages are referred to by the catch-all title of ginger beer.