I say this is not beer but I am not sure. The label says both "Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer" and "Flavoured Alcoholic Beverage". Which is not quite saying beer, right? My Scots mother, the minister's wife who bartended as a girl, said something to the effect that with a little more power behind it this would have been her own mother's ginger wine. I am sure that it is in fact "made" which is different from brewed, right?

Whatever it is we have been buying quite a bit of it this summer. The local government store has determined that it is fit for our consumption in this colony province and I am grateful for my masters having been so kind. It pours a pleasant burnished gold with a frothy white rim and foam. Fresh cut ginger root on the pour. In the mouth, plenty of body, hot spicy ginger peel, honey and a sense that there may be bread crustiness backing it up, too.

I am not having it with ice or a citrus slice suggested by the maker as shown above. Perfectly swell in a dimpled mug on a hot long weekend as a break from Manhattans, naps and pints of pale ale down at the pub.