I am seeing a resurgence in the popularity of an 18th century beverage, ginger beer. Not to be confused with ginger ale, which is made with ginger extract. The original version of ginger beer was actually an alcoholic beverage originating in England, today really only available by the home brewer.
Today's commercial brands are classified as soft drinks/sodas; containing less than a half percent of alcohol. Fentimans of the UK, is a great example of a company that has been brewing ginger beer since the 1900s. The point of difference in their ginger beer vs. any other, is their original brewing process requiring a few days of fermentation compared to the limited production time of other ginger beers available today on the market.
Fentimans on their ginger beer:
Unlike other Ginger Beers our process starts with fermenting the finest chinese ginger root. This goes a long way to explaining the wonderful Ginger "Burn" that each bottle contains. If you like Ginger, you will love our Ginger Beer!