Awhile back I’d received several bottles of Crabbie’s Ginger Beer, which I’ve had at some point in the distant past but never reviewed. It’s brewed with real ginger (steeped on it for six weeks), as well as four other secret ingredients. Here’s a bit about the beer and the label provided by the company marketing:

John Crabbie sourced only the finest Asian ginger and exotic spices to bring Crabbie’s Alcoholic Ginger Beer to life, which after being steeped for six weeks, creates the deliciously refreshing beverage. Crabbie’s is made with purely natural flavors – none of those artificial and hard-to-pronounce sweeteners – most importantly, real harvested Asian ginger roots. This refreshing ginger flavor is the main ingredient in the secret recipe from 200+ years ago that has been passed down from gingeration to gingeration!

Have you met Ginger? She is the majestic Asian Elephant featured in Crabbie’s products. She is quite the explorer but always stays true to her Asian ginger roots — symbolizing the refreshing flavor packed inside each bottle and can. In honor of our Asian roots and our elephant friend, the brand sponsors four elephants in the Millennium Elephant Foundation in Sri Lanka (Ranmenika, Lakshmi, Rani and Pooja).

According to the website, the origin’s of Crabbie’s hearkens back to Edinburgh, Scotland in the 1800s, when John Crabbie traveled to the Far East to source the Asian ginger still used today.

Crabbie’s is 4.8% alcohol by volume, which I assume is the export version as the website shows 4%. I have no idea what (if any) the IBUs are.

Appearance: Clear, deep gold color that’s bright and attractive. A steady stream of tiny bubbles feeds a fizzy white head. Decent legs and lacing. It’s a pretty beer for sure. (Though if you look at the bubbles on the side of the glass in my photo, it looks like my glass wasn’t clean enough!)

Smell: Big ginger aroma, which is really more like candied ginger so it’s a bit sweet in that regard. There’s a musty note too, which reminds me of raw ginger. I’d like to say there’s more to the aroma than ginger, but that’s the prominent character here which pushed all else aside.

Taste: Spicy ginger and sweet soda (essentially, true ginger ale), there’s no real “beer” character here except for a light graininess. The ginger flavor is really nice, particularly if you like the flavor, quite natural with some spicy heat and a fresh note to it. And that sweet thread runs through it.

Mouthfeel: Light body that’s sparkly and fizzy with effervescence, and it’s sweet-to-cloying in the aftertaste. There’s a lingering ginger spicy heat into the finish.

Overall: This is quite sweet, but it has a terrific real ginger character that is enjoyable. It’s sweet enough to remind me of soda, something to consider if you don’t want to drink something that sweet.

One of the explicit uses for this beer, as the company itself notes, is as a cocktail mixer, particularly for Moscow mules. I haven’t tried it out as such (yet), but I also apparently missed this serving note from the company:

Simple Serve: Crabbie’s Original is best served cold and poured over ice, with a slice of lime

I don’t believe I’ve ever had a beer served over ice. As for a Moscow mule recipe, the company suggests 4 ounces of Crabbie’s, 1.5 ounces of vodka, and 1/6 ounce of lime juice, stirred together.