Hollows Superior Alcoholic Ginger Beer
Fentimans Ltd.

Hollows & Fentimans Alcoholic Ginger Beer. 4% ABV.

A: Sounds very carbonated as it's poured, but the is not head nor lacing. Slightly orange yellow. A pretty solid amount of sheeting, though ragged.

S: Smells like candied ginger. That's a good sign. Very raw ginger aroma. No noticeable alcohol.

T/MF: Tastes like candied ginger, too. But with a fruity upturn on the finish. Took me a moment to pick it out as sweet pear. Makes sense since pear juice is listed as an ingredient.

Not bad. Slightly more interesting than Crabbie's, because of the pear and candied ginger thing, but I like the ginger flavor of the Crabbie's better.

Poured from a 16.9 oz. bottle, into a Belgian tulip glass.

Pretty safe ginger beer. Bit on the sweet side. Nicely effervescent though. Grows on me with each swig. Could do with more ginger.

Slightly hazy pale straw color. No head. Started off very fizzy then settled to a moderate flow of mixed size bubbles. No lacing.

Smells of mostly ginger. There is a bit of pear and some lighter orange. Pretty much the list of ingredients. Swirling the glass kicked up a bit more orange.

Sweet with a little tart. The ginger is much lighter than I expected from the smell, but it did build up a bit of a burn on my tongue. Very mild orange, not orange zest. Just a hint of pear. The flavor mix is very nice, but hardly beer-like. The aftertaste is really just a fade down of the main flavors.

Fizzy, tongue tingling. Light ginger burn that doesn't build up over time. Feels a bit sticky afterwards.

This is essentially a strong ginger ale soda with a couple of added fruit juice flavors. I have drunk many non alcoholic ginger ale sodas that had a stronger ginger flavor and were much spicier. Refreshing. Pleasant, but not really what I was looking for. Much more like a cooler than a beer.

I can't say it has a huge depth of flavor, but it's ginger beer alright...and really tasty at that. Not too overwhelmingly on the ginger spiciness. A solid beer to enjoy on a hot day I say.

Clear yellow with a bubbly consistency. No head.

Smells of hot ginger. That is it. Just Ginger.

Starts out sweet ginger and a little hot. Slight lemon flavor.

Mouthe feel is soda.

Overall a brewed ginger ale.

It pours a somewhat cloudy, lime yellow body with a tiny bit of visible carbonation and no head.

It has a fresh aroma of ginger, fruit and honey, with a hint of yeast.

The taste is sweet and spicy, with ginger, pear, grapes and honey; really sugary. The finish has a lingering, warm, peppery sensation to it.

It's a bit lighter than most ginger beers. Maybe a bit sugary aswell. But it's perfectly drinkable.

If I've had more than a handful of ginger beers, it would surprise me because I liked sweet malt but not overly-sweetened malt. Ginger beer seems mostly the latter. Hollows is in the middle range... but still too sweet to have more than a handful in this style. Nonetheless, I am recovering from a cold; so I thought a shot of ginger would be good.

While Looks are not like beer, the ginger Smells are interesting until the sugar coats the nostrils. Tastes are refreshing until sugar coats the tongue. And the bubbles are cleansing until the sugar makes me stop drinking it. Maybe I will share the rest of the bottle.

Sensing that Fentiman's had an interesting past, I went on their website and this hunch was confirmed. Lots of classic English promotion that is convincing enough that someone like me -- who shuns sugar-water -- just might try their other ginger beer... on a hot June day.

Ginger aroma, pours a hazy straw with a rapidly fading white head. Sweet flavor, with much less ginger then I was expecting. Thin body, with just a touch of ginger heat in the finish. Overall, there are a lot better ginger beers out there.

 

My first beer in 2017, drank on the morning of Jan 1st.
Look: yellow, cloudy, not that lively
Smell: very gingerly,
Taste: Predominantly ginger, not too strong but not weak either. Some strange corn husk taste and sweetness, but was a good thing, also quite mild.
Feel: Very refreshing, would love to have this again in the summer. The taste was mild enough to not make it too difficult to consume a large amount.

Just a note, that the current address of the brewer, is "Thomas Hardy Ltd., Kendal, Cumbria UK, which is different than listed on this page.

Looks beautiful and natural, slightly cloudy tan yellow. Nothing artificial. And I love the traces of particulate inclusions which give the slightly textured, murkiness. Lack of translucence, means the drink is real. :-) It says it's made with "ginger root, water, sugar, pear juice, and yeast.' The naturalness comes through in the flavor, as well. The ginger is sweetened by the pear juice, with only slight peppery tang. The hint of alcohol is very mild; less than some hard ciders. Medium-light bodied.

My only question might be was it strong enough.... It's really a mild drink; I've had other ginger ales where the peppery ginger is quite pronounced and particulate heavy, and prefer those. This beer was not as strong as "Not Your Father's Root Beer." And it was definitely not as spicey as "Sweet Heat". Perhaps the British Hollows does not push their recipe to American taste bud standards. But this was a very palatable, very real, if mild, ginger beer.

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint glass. Pours a hazy pale straw with a thin white head tha dissipates to patches with no lacing. Aroma of fresh, genuine ginger with no discernible malt. Flavor of sharp, fresh ginger, mild lemon and pear, finishing with lingering ginger and light mixed fruit. Medium bodied with sharp carbonation. An interesting variation on ginger ale, with good ginger flavors dominating, but some pleasant fruit flavors to compliment them. This seems to have a bit more body to it than a non-alcholic ginger drink, which I would attribute to malt, although no malt flavors are detectable. I actually like this better than most standard ginger drinks because it is not quite as sweet and has a slightly better mouth feel. I like the mild fruit flavors too. I'm a fan of ginger ale and liked this a lot.

Drank straight from the bottle like a savage (and because I was lazy). I enjoyed this possibly more than any other ginger beer I've had (not that I've had more than a half-dozen or so). I'm not normally a fan of very fizzy drinks, but it works very well here. Light, a little sweet, and not as harsh as some ginger beers go. Something I would drink either with a not-very-heavy meal such as fish or pasta sans tomato sauce, or just drink on its own at a bbq or something.

0.5L bottle served in a shaker pint glass. Best before Aug 2016.

Appearance: Hazy pale gold to light tan. No head. Looks like a ginger beer.

Smell: Strong, but not overpowering ginger smell. Some floral notes as well.

Taste: Spicy ginger, honey, and an aftertaste of pear. A bit like candied ginger, but with a bit more heat and some other flavors in the sweetness to compliment it.

Mouthfeel: Fizzy and spicy, with some definite ginger "heat" lingering on the tongue. A bit sticky on the teeth. Normally I don't care for the fizziness, but it works here.

Overall / Drinkability: For an ginger beer with alcohol in it, it's good, but not great by ginger beer standards. Refreshing on its own, but I think it would go better with food. Cookies I think. Worth a try, but I've had better Ginger beers that were not alcoholic or had lower content. I will say though that this ginger beer doesn't burn a hole through you like Blenheim Ginger beer does, which is way too much heat. So this one is just right in heat and flavor balance, but not as deep in flavor as I had hoped as the other botanicals from Fentimans are quite tasty.

Marketed as beer, but not as adherence to the common and contemporary ingredient set that's been adopted by today's beer lovers, the taste of sugar and ginger make a massive mark on the session, overshadowing many of the finer nuances in taste.

Hollows Superior Alcoholic Ginger Beer pours with the slightest sepia tarnish upon an otherwise chardonnay hue. Racing streams of bubble billow from the glass and frame a spritzy pop upon the rim. Its aromas are all candied ginger with the slightest tinge of cider and white wine underneath. The first sip is much the same, but even more so soda-sweet with ginger flavoring.

The taste is steady and unwavering but never folds in any depth or complexity from malt, hops, fermentation character, acidity or balance. With the emphasis heavy on sugary ginger, the carbonic bite of effervescence highlights the beer's spicy, and peppery refreshment.

Its finish is of simple syrup, ginger and pepper as the three-headed monster tramples the palate like soda pop. Its carbonation shreds the throat and its sugar counterpart induces heartburn nearly upon impact. Simply put, this is no ale by modern standards. It's an alcoholic ginger ale soda.

Better than I expected!
Tastes like a sweet thick alcoholic ginger ale. It's not dry like some popular ginger ale sodas are. Light carbonation.
I can see why this attracts non-beer drinkers and is used for beer cocktails.

 

Very nice any gingerish, but a bit too sweet.

The base is BMW level but the ginger is a nice touch. A good deck beer/lawn mower beer

Good Ginger beer. Go Hawks!