Ginger Beer Mocktail

This Ginger Beer Mocktail takes just 5 minutes to stir together and is incredibly refreshing! Bright lemon flavor combines with fresh herbs and zesty ginger in this fun mocktail. It’s perfect for year-round celebrations from backyard BBQ’s and picnics to holiday dinners and entertaining.

Two glasses with ginger beer mocktail, ice cubes, lemon slices, and lemon balm on a countertop. - 2

There’s a local company where we live that makes the tastiest Ginger beer (aka ginger bug)! It’s rich in ginger flavor and not overly sweet.

Watch How To Make Ginger Beer Mocktails

And since we were enjoying it so much, I decided to make a mocktail with it. It’s been a huge hit in our house, and we make it so often, I have 3 versions for you today!

The top of a ginger beer mocktail glass showing the drink, ice cubes, lemon balm leaves and a slice of lemon. - 3

Ingredients & Substitutions

A bottle of ginger beer and bowls of maple syrup, lemon balm, and a lemon on a white wood board. - 4

Ginger beer – made by fermenting sugar, ginger, and water. What you want to look for is the version that is intentionally made to be non-alcoholic. This seems to be the most common kind where we live, but there are alcoholic versions, so make sure to check your labels. As you’ll see in the photo above, ginger beer is sometimes called ginger bug when made with traditional fermentation techniques, and it needs to be refrigerated because it contains live probiotics.
Sweetener – I like to use Grade A amber maple syrup for it’s caramel like flavor when paired with ginger beer. Honey also works, but be sure to thoroughly mix it with a small amount of liquid. When you add honey to cold liquids, it can seize up and not mix in.
Lemon – freshly squeezed lemon juice adds a bright pop of flavor that is so good with ginger beer. My variations use lime juice and orange juice, both of which are super yummy.
Fresh herbs – I like to use lemon balm to play off the fresh lemon, it has a herbaceous, light lemon flavor. However, it’s not exactly common in most places, so I have variations that use mint, or you can omit the fresh herbs altogether. I have a lemon balm plant outside my back patio, where we planted a bunch of herbs in a section of the flower beds, and I can’t recommend this idea enough for fresh herbs!

How to make this recipe step by step

Four photos in a collage showing slicing half a lemon, juicing the other half, muddling the herb and lemon juice and adding ginger beer. - 5

Step 1: Start by slicing the lemon, then squeeze the rest for fresh lemon juice.

Using the back of a spoon, mash the fresh herbs against the glass with the sweetener and lemon juice to ‘muddle’ it and release the flavor. Then top up the mixture with ginger beer.

Stirring the ginger beer mocktail with a spoon. - 6

Step 2: Stir the drink together and adjust the sweetness and lemon juice to your taste.

Garnishing the ginger beer mocktail with a sprig of lemon balm. - 7

Step 3 : Garnish the ginger beer mocktails with lemon slices and fresh sprigs of herbs if desired, and serve immediately.

Two highball glasses of ginger beer mocktail garnished with lemon slices and lemon balm. - 8

Ways to serve this

Our favorite way to enjoy these is on our back patio with the sunshine on our faces. It’s been a fun way to end our workday and compare notes about the day.
This mocktail is perfect for any brunch menu. Try it with my Sausage Hash Brown Breakfast Casserole , Winter Fruit Salad , & Cranberry Orange Muffins . In the summer, serve it with my Fruit & Yogurt Parfaits , Turkey Breakfast Sausage , and Spinach Scrambled Eggs .
Serve this mocktail to kick off your next dinner party or holiday dinner. The holiday menus in my Thanksgiving Dinner and Christmas Prime Rib Dinner are both perfect with this mocktail.
The ginger flavor is also really tasty with any kind of football snacks you can think of. My Marinated Cheese , Smoked Cream Cheese , and my upcoming Taco Dip are all perfect options.

No! Ginger beer is fermented, not as sweet, with a bold ginger flavor. Ginger ale is not fermented, and is very sweet like soda with a very light ginger flavor.

Ginger beer can be made with or without alcohol, but ginger beer that is fermented (sometimes called ginger bug) is usually made to be non-alcoholic, or there may be trace amounts remaining from the fermentation, much like kombucha.

Storing leftovers

To store – this mocktail is best made to order, the leftovers do not keep well, so it’s best to make as much as you’ll need.
Make ahead – you can slice the lemon and squeeze the lemon juice up to 4 hours before you’ll need it, refrigerate each separately in an airtight container.

Two glasses of ginger beer mocktail on a countertop with a linen on the side topped with lemon balm and lemon slices. - 9

Tips & Tricks

Fun glasses add a lot to the presentation of mocktails. I have a few glasses I’ve collected on sale over the years, and my favorite size for mocktails is the Double Old Fashioned, which is typically 12 ounces. Both Crate and Barrel and Williams-Sonoma have so many gorgeous options. The ones you see pictured here were from Crate and Barrel about 6 years ago (they’re called: Hatch 11-Oz. Double Old-Fashioned Glass & you can find similar ones linked on Amazon in the recipe card).
Fresh herbs add a lot of flavor and make for great presentation, but this mocktail is still really tasty with ginger beer and lemon if you don’t have anything fresh on hand. I like to use whatever I can find in my herb garden about 6 months a year, then I usually have a basil plant and a mint plant, which I keep in a jar with water. You can read about how to keep living herbs alive for months at a time over on my How to Maintain Living Herbs . I’ve been doing this for over a decade and just know that sometimes the plants die no matter what you do, but overall, most live for months, and it’s a nice way to have a sprig of fresh mint on demand!

Two glasses of ginger beer mocktail topped with lemon slices and lemon balm with a linen in the background. - 10

More Mocktail Recipe Inspiration

Apple Cider Mocktail
5 Easy Kombucha Mocktails
Cranberry Kombucha Mocktail
Mango Blackberry Mocktail
Strawberry Mocktail

INGREDIENTS1x2x3x

1/4 cup lemon juice - freshly squeezed
2 tbsp Grade A amber maple syrup - or honey, see notes
8 ounces Ginger beer - 1 cup, non-alcoholic
2 slices lemon
6 sprigs lemon balm - or 4 sprigs of mint, see notes

EQUIPMENT

Old Fashioned Glass Cups - these are very similar to my glasses
Grade A Amber Maple Syrup
Citrus Juicer

INSTRUCTIONS

Start by slicing 2 slices from the lemon, then squeeze the rest of the lemon for the juice, or more if your lemon is small.
Using the back of a spoon, mash the fresh herbs against the sides of 2 11-oz glasses with the sweetener (add less to start to your taste) and lemon juice to ‘muddle’ it and release the flavor. Then top up the mixture with ginger beer.
Stir the drink together and adjust the sweetness and lemon juice to your taste. Fill the rest of the glass with ice cubes.
Garnish the ginger beer mocktails with lemon slices and fresh sprigs of herbs if desired, and serve immediately.

NOTES

nutrition facts