Non Alcoholoc Ginger Beer - Containing Up To 0.5% Alcohol

[RobH]

My 5 year old daughter loves Bundaberg Ginger beer, so I decided to brew some non-alcoholic Ginger beer for her to enjoy. Apparently according to Australian legislation, if a beverage has less than 0.5% alcohol content it does not need to be declared, and is considered a soft drink.

I had my suspicions, but have only just taken the time to search around and found out that Bundaberg GB typically has about 0.2% alcohol content - and that is after they heat treat it to kill the yeast and some of the alcohol evaporates.

If Bundaberg GB has 0.2% I wonder what my Coopers GB kit (mixed to non-alcoholic specs) will contain, and what I am primarily interested in is what effect (if any) this low level of alcohol has on young children.

I called the NSW Health, Mental Health and Drug & Alcohol Office - and the person I spoke to wasn't even aware of any levels of alcohol in soft drinks.

Has any one else looked into this?

 

[geoffi]

I make ginger beer from time to time using Brigalow kits. I worked out it has an ABV of ~0.3% (based on 150g sugar in 23 litres). I have no hesitation in letting my four-year-old son drink it. I don't believe such a negligible amount would have any health impact whatsoever.

In fact I'm (slightly) more concerned about the artificial sweetener it contains. (An OT observation: these drinks taste OK when very cold. But when they warm up the sweetener tastes vile.)

 

[jonocarroll]

If you use yeast to carbonate the drink, it will have alcohol unless you take measures to later remove it somehow. Just the same, if you make bread using yeast then up to the point of baking it, it has some alcohol.

Anything else is pretty much carbonated cordial - add ingredients, carbonate somehow. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I would be surprised to find that this level of alcohol intake (say, drinking two of these = 2 x 0.2% x 375ml = 1.5ml of alcohol) is of any impact on even a child. I think there's more alcohol in vanilla essence in the icing on their birthday cake.

If you've got a keg setup it's dead easy to mix the correct ingredients and carbonate it. Just depends how that will taste vs. a brewed ginger beer.

Edit: Quick correction to calculation

 

[QldKev]

I wouldn't be worried at such low levels of alcohol. I think you will find the artificial sweeteners used in most drinks/foods are far more dangerous to their health.

QldKev

 

[komodo]

I reacon the sugar, food colouring and artificial flavouring in the cordial your 5yr old daughter will otherwise be drinking would be of more concern than 0.2% alcohol. She'd more likely drown from drinking so much of it before she shows signs of being intoxication from it.

 

[Rod]

Most artificial flavours are alcohol based

 

[RobH]

I see the point about the artificial sweeteners and crap ... in fact if I had read the label before I bought it I would have put it back on the shelf due to the artificial sweeteners. And yeah, I agree that it is such a negligible amount that it "probbly" won't equate to anything. Just wondering what the scientific or medical basis is of the decision to classify anything with 0.5% alcohol as a soft drink.

 

[Flash_DG]

Home made Ginger Beer never hurt our parents.

 

[jonocarroll]

Just wondering what the scientific or medical basis is of the decision to classify anything with 0.5% alcohol as a soft drink.

Gotta draw the line somewhere. Everything that says 'X free' or 'contains no X' has a tolerance guideline. Fat free milk can contain a certain (and unless I'm mistaken, somewhat high) level of fat. You might be tempted to say that the line is 0%, but that would require you to be able to measure with infinite precision. What about 0.05%? 0.005? and so on.

0.5% is what is considered to be negligible, but measurable in this case.

 

[Kai]

Home made Ginger Beer never hurt our parents.

But asbestos did.

 

[Flash_DG]

But asbestos did.

and many other things too... but irrelevant to the topic

 

[Ras77]

Quick question


Has anyone come close to making a Bundaberg Ginger clone my brother would love me if i could roll out a keg of it



Cheers
Ras