Battle of the Ginger Beers

We're spending our Super Bowl Sunday watching some foosball and doing some ginger beer taste testing. For the most part American ginger beer is a non-alcoholic fermented ginger beverage while the imported ginger beers are typically alcoholic. So far we've only bought, and loved, some non-alcoholic brands such as Reed's and Maine Root. This time we've added some imports into the mix.

The line up:

Maine Root Spicy Ginger Brew
Our favorite of the five beers, veeeery spicy (will clean your sinuses) with excellent ginger flavor. A non-alcoholic highly carbonated delight. Seriously, you must find and buy this stuff immediately!

Bruce Cost Unfiltered Ginger Ale with Pomegranate
Chris thought this said ginger 'beer' not 'ale' when he picked it out - so our bad, but still a good drink. Very cloudy because of its unfiltered sediment though you couldn't actually taste that it had pomegranate added. Our third favorite pick overall.

Bundaberg Ginger Beer
A non-alcoholic Australian ginger beer, this was our second favorite. A sweet drink with strong ginger flavor, just not as spicy as Maine Root. I think this makes the best mixer beer, for drinks like Moscow Mules, since it's not too spicy. In fact I'm using the leftovers in my Hawaiian Mule, pineapple vodka and ginger beer, as I type.

Crabbie's Spiced Orange Alcoholic Ginger Beer
A British import, you can tell in the first sip that it's alcoholic. Great orange smell and flavor, but not as sweet as the first three. Our fourth overall choice.

Hollows & Fentimans
Another British import, this was a big disappointment. If we were doing a blind taste test I'm not even sure you would know you were drinking a ginger beer. Unappealing smell and lackluster flavor. Not worth the effort to seek out.