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My sister always made ginger beer this way 
but I never liked to see the yeasty bits! Never realised there was an alcholic version.
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I was too young to care about bits… it was a wonderful treat. Remember, those were the days when we did not have pocket money or sweets… Gingerbeer was exotic , as far as us kids were concerned… and it cost the parents nothing… yippee
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We will have to start calling them “pu…vets” 
Neither did my parents friends! 
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Never knew it was made in France. 
Probably because I don’t buy it as I prefer agrumes.
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Traditional ginger beer is alcoholic - not quite sure how alcoholic but definitely alcoholic.
The trick is a “Ginger Beer Plant” which is actually a symbiotic lump of yeast and a bacterium - the one going around the village may will have been the real McCoy.
I’ve never been able to buy “proper” Ginger Beer in the shops - most is a mix of ginger extract, xanthan gum (to make it cloudy) and fizzy water, will probably have to wait until retirement to have a go at making some but definitely intend to try one day.
Oh yes, its made in deepest darkest Burgundy. They also make 2 types of IPA a Brown ale (for which they won an award in in England) , Stout, blanche & many others. !
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Hi Tracey
The ‘pop lorry’ was still doing the rounds in Co. Durham when I taught there in the mid-80s! The returnable glass bottle seemed such a sensible idea (although that’s not what I used to say when I was sorting them into the right crates as part of my Saturday job!)
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We used to have Nettle Beer in Heysham, which was a great favourite with the tourists.
and which we have since made here.
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I had a neighbour who used to make homemade nettle wine - potent stuff 
Here of course they like their nettle soup.
I make special soups in the Winter. Special 'cos they are made with whatever is leftover… and no one soup ever is exactly the same as another. 
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That’s my type of cooking too. Whatever is in the fridge and needs to be used, very rare that I will follow a recipe especially as I have a tendency to add hot peppers 
to everything (excluding desserts.) 
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Any particular reason you moved to that area 
However industry turned away from it to plastic as the latter is lighter (so less transport cost) and single use so no worries abut sterilisation.
It’s one of those things that appears to be a no-brainer but actually needs careful assessment, do the costs of collecting, sorting and sterilising glass bottles for re-use stack up?
Always did for the milkman/dairy…
Maybe - but at the time most dairies were small and local and there was a network delivering milk to people’s doorstep which could also collect the empties for little additional cost.
Considerably different economics these days, even for milk.
just needs folk to get organised… every small step counts…