Ginger Beer vs Ginger Ale vs Ginger Kombucha: What Is the Difference?
Oct 08, 2026
We make two gingery drinks and people mix them up constantly, so let's sort it out. Ginger beer, ginger ale and ginger kombucha are three different things. One is a soft drink with a punch, one is a soft drink with a whisper, and one is a live ferment. Here's how to tell them apart and which one to reach for.
Ginger ale
The gentle one. Ginger ale is a carbonated soft drink with a mild ginger flavour, usually quite sweet, usually pale gold. It started life as a mixer and that's still its best job: it's the thing in a whisky and dry. Most supermarket ginger ale is flavouring, sugar and water. There's very little ginger in it, and often none at all in the "dry" versions.
Ginger beer
The punchy one. Real ginger beer has actual ginger in it, and you feel it in the back of your throat. Traditionally it was brewed and lightly fermented, which is where the "beer" comes from, but almost all modern ginger beer is a non-alcoholic soft drink, just a much bolder one than ginger ale. Cloudy, spicy, often with a bit of citrus.
Waves & Caves Ginger Beer is our version. Real ginger, natural flavours, lower sugar than the big brands, no preservatives, handcrafted in Margaret River with local rainwater. It's the drink for a Moscow mule, a dark and stormy, or straight over ice on a hot day. If you've searched "Margaret River ginger beer", this is the one you were looking for.
Ginger kombucha
The live one. This is a completely different category. Kombucha is fermented tea, made by a culture of yeast and bacteria, and it's tangy, lightly fizzy and naturally low in sugar because the ferment eats most of it. Add cold-pressed ginger and you get something that hits the same spot as ginger beer but with a sour, cider-like edge and live cultures in the bottle.
rok Ginger Pop is the one that started our whole business back in 2015. Cold-pressed ginger, real lemon, wild kombucha culture, raw, organic, preservative free. It has to live in the fridge, because it's alive.
Side by side
| Ginger ale | Ginger beer | Ginger kombucha | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Soft drink | Soft drink | Fermented tea |
| Ginger hit | Mild | Strong | Strong, with tang |
| Sweetness | High | Medium | Low |
| Live cultures | No | No | Yes (if raw) |
| Storage | Pantry | Pantry | Fridge |
| Best for | Whisky mixer | Mules, dark and stormy, straight | Daily drink, mocktails |
Which one should you buy?
Want a proper ginger soft drink for the esky or the bar? Ginger beer. Want the ginger without the sugar, and something that's actually good for your gut? Ginger kombucha. Want a whisky mixer? Ginger ale, and we don't make one yet, so no hard feelings.
Can't decide? A lot of our customers keep both: a case of Ginger Beer in the pantry for guests and a case of Ginger Pop in the fridge for themselves. And if you want to see both in a glass together, there's a shandy in our kombucha mocktails post.
One thing about "is ginger beer alcoholic?"
It gets asked. Waves & Caves Ginger Beer is a soft drink, no fermentation, no alcohol. rok Ginger Pop is fermented, so it carries a trace, well under the 0.5% that defines a non-alcoholic drink, and we batch test it to make sure. Full explanation in Is kombucha alcoholic?
