Adam Croft

My latest selection of beers from the 52 Week Beer Club turned up earlier today, so it’s time to crack open a couple of bottles and see what they’re like.

The first one that caught my eye was a beer simply called ‘Ginger’, from the Williams brewery in Scotland. The beer professes to be a ‘traditional alcoholic ginger beer with a distinctly adult taste‘. One line that caught my eye was the one which claimed the beer contained no hops whatsoever. Oh dear – worrying news for a hop lover such as myself. Let’s see what it’s like!

On opening there’s a fair bit of fizz – always nice to see (hear). The ginger smell is there straight away – fresh and light. The beer pours well and has plenty of condition but head retention is poor to non-existent. There’s simply nothing holding the beer together in that sense – it’s more like a Ginger Beer than a ginger beer, if you catch my drift. The aroma is an odd mix of beer and ginger. Of course, no hop aroma and no other real body to the nose having used only light malt and wheat in the brew.

Mouthfeel is very fizzy, and very tangy – the fresh root ginger comes through pretty strongly and lasts long into the aftertaste. The taste is fresh, sharp and definitely gingery. At 3.8% ABV it’s not going to knock anyone’s socks off but I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the intention. Williams wanted to create an authentic alcoholic ginger beer and they’ve succeeded. It’s gingery, and it’s beery. Simples! Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going outside to enjoy the rest of the bottle while the sun’s still around.