As I mentioned in my last installment of this series, I’ve acquired several additions to my original round-up pictured above and this series will likely extend into late February1 as I locked myself into reviewing certain ones at certain times in this process. And, for this segment, I’ll be looking at Stewart’s Ginger Beer, Reed’s Premium Ginger Ale, and Maine Root Ginger “Brew”. I found the results pleasantly surprising. Once again, please take my ratings of the Reed’s Original and Premium products with a grain of salt and understanding that I’m rating them as Ginger Beers and testing how they play on their own and in a Moscow Mule. (See the original post to review my testing process)

I’ll take on Stewart’s, a brand I associate with cheap attempts at recalling memories of a “better time” when you ordered from a soda jerk in a striped shirt.

Stewart’s Ginger Beer:

stewarts ginger beer

If you couldn’t tell from the previous sentence, I expected the worst from this. I have no idea where my prejudice came from as I think the only Stewart’s product I’d ever had was the Root Beer. So, on tasting it, I expected very little. And sure enough this hit the tongue and it was a slick, syrupy, and overly sweet2 mess with nary the lovingly-harsh punch of ginger I was looking for. Ready to dismiss it, grabbing my pen for notes, and move on, it hit me.

Unlike most ginger beers which greet you at the front door with a hearty “How d’you do?” this one bangs on the back door and grabs you by the scruff of your neck unexpectedly. And that was pleasing. The heat comes through as a purely ginger profile and then lingers, for just longer than is welcome, as something more peppery. Hell, their tagline for this even states, “Then enjoy the slow burn at the back of your throat.” Well, right they are.

This brew consists of carbonated water, HFCS, natural flavor, citric acid, sodium benzoate, caramel color, and quillaia extract. The quillaia extract would most likely affect the mouthfeel3 that I mentioned above. The caramel coloring is also of note because this is, by far, the darkest of the ginger beers I’ve had to-date. While not quite a cola color it’s somewhere between the straw of a ginger ale and RC Cola and it’s slightly off-putting. All-in-all this is a damned fine ginger beer that, if it just evened out its approach and toned its finish down a notch would end up in my Top 3. As it is, it’s a Top 5 contender that you should try if it’s available.

Reed’s Premium Ginger Brew:

reeds_premium
So, here we are again with the Reed’s line of “brews” that, as I mentioned,4 really aren’t in the same category as the Reed’s Extra Ginger Beer product or, truly, other ginger beers at-large. But, slog through them we must.

While this doesn’t have the ridiculously brash front of pineapple and honey the Reed’s Original does, it’s still very mild, fruity, and, even for a ginger ale, too thickly sweet. Unfortunately this all leads to a ginger ale that is frumpish and flaccid and needs to be spanked with a switch and made to step lively. At least Reed’s Original had oomph and guile and dared to be something. In trying to refine it to be “Premium” they’ve stripped most of what made Reed’s Original worth trying at all5 and still failed to make a passable ginger ale.

Sadly, in my opinion, this makes the Reed’s Premium worthless as a ginger ale or ginger beer. Using this, the Moscow Mule just rolls over and brays in the desert sun with no support from the heavy dose of ginger beer it requires and as the ginger ale in a Pimm’s Cup it is flaccid and uninspiring. Move along and use Reed’s Extra Ginger Beer if your choices are limited to the Reed’s products, both the Original and Premium are uninspiring and misplaced as ginger beers.
Maine Root Ginger Brew:

maine_root
I had just loaded my Whole Foods basket with all the Reed’s products when I was walking back to the registers and “Maine Root Ginger Brew” caught my eye. “You’re reviewing ginger beers, numbnuts, move along, ” I told myself. But I took one look at the Reed’s ginger ales in my basket, and knew that maintaining any sort of arbitrary principles would be allowing hobgoblins of consistency to overtake my little mind.

And, I’m terribly glad I beat those hobgoblins down like the toothy abortive step-children they are. This has been the surprise of the bunch so far. It bites nicely very early on and then builds to a good long finish without making you wish you’d ignored it on the shelf all those weeks ago. One of the simpler, and cloudier, of the brews it has a very clean, if unfiltered, taste and feel as evidenced by its ingredients: purified water, certified fair trade organic cane juice, ginger extract, and spices.

This lands squarely in the Top 3 of those I’ve tried so far and hits squarely on what I think a ginger beer should be. Very similar to Regatta it has slightly more depth and character that makes it stand out just a touch. Even with all the additional folderol about its origins from pockets of angel breath found in the clouds covering the unfettered wilderness of Kublai Khan’s dreams I give this a hearty recommendation as something you need to pick up and try after your next visit to Whole Foods…or Kublai Khan’s dreams.
Stewart’s Rating: ★★★½☆

Reed’s Premium Ginger Brew Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Maine Root Ginger Brew Rating: ★★★★½

Things you should also read:

cocktailnerd’s Ginger Beer Extravaganza Part I and Part II

From Eric Felten’s “How’s Your Drink?”

Wikipedia’s entry on Ginger Beer

Scottes’ Rum Rundown of Ginger Ales and Brews

A nice discussion at Ministry of Rum

StumbleUpon It!
  1. THRILLING, I KNOW!!!! [↩]
  2. characteristic of HFCS [↩]
  3. I hate that word with its so inherently dirty, but I have no other way to describe it [↩]
  4. and belatedly realized [↩]
  5. i mean, if you’re into that sort of thing [↩]