Brewed ginger ale became popular in England in the mid-1700s. It was made from ginger, sugar, lemon juice and water and would naturally ferment up to 11% strength. Nowadays, most of it is not fermented but merely zapped with carbon dioxide.
Ginger's spiciness makes for a thirst-quenching drink, but the appeal of real beer with ginger infusion is its lack of sugar sweetness that is typical of non-alcoholic soft-drink ginger beers or ales.
Monteith's Summer Ale is made from four different malts, West Coast rata honey and ginger. It was first produced for the summer months in 1998 and its spiciness and sweetness has varied slightly from year to year. This year's fine balance between sweet and spice is the best since the first brew.
Other ginger-infused beers include Christchurch brewery Harrington's refreshing Lazy Sunday with subtle flavours of tangelos, coriander and crushed ginger; wheat beer Ginger Jerry from Wigram brewery on the other side of town, and Boundary Road Grizzly ginger beer, with pungent ginger and a secret spice.
They are all 4.5% to 5% strength. Like Monteith's (about $15 a six-pack; $26 a dozen) Boundary Road is widely available.
Ginger has been ground for hot drinks and chopped up to flavour food in Asia since ancient times, but has since been thought to have a number of health benefits, some of which are supported by modern research.
The first to come to mind is its ability to settle the stomach. I was seasick (for the first and only time) during a stormy ferry crossing when I was 4 - until a steward brought a bottle of ginger beer for mother to administer.
It turns out that ginger helps to stop nausea during pregnancy, possibly even during chemotherapy, and certainly eases the effects of motion sickness.
It is a traditional remedy for joint pains and to help digestion; other benefits being researched are reduction of heart disease and relief from migraines, arthritis, anxiety and depression.
And, finally, for those fearing brewer's droop, ginger has long been regarded as an aphrodisiac.
Wild trip
Monteith's Wild Food Challenge takes to the road on TV One for several weeks from tomorrow night when some of the competing chefs are visited in a series.
The annual challenge is for restaurants and cafes to produce a dish that best matches one of the brewery's beers with meat not normally raised on a farm.
The series starts in Christchurch with seafood and boar, moving to Wellington for a goatburger. In the next and subsequent weeks, hare, pork and paua dishes are prepared in Wairarapa, Hawkes Bay, Havelock North and Taupo.
The last couple of episodes are in the Auckland, Coromandel and Waikato regions for duck, buffalo, rabbit and hare, before the winner from 80 entrants is announced.
