Why is ginger ale called an "ale"?

The word "ale" has a variety of different specific meanings (e.g. beer brewed without hops, or beer brewed using warm fermenting yeast, or beer with a higher alcohol content than lager, or sometimes just any kind of beer). But all of those definitions refer to a type of beer -- an alcoholic beverage brewed via fermented grains.

I can see why ginger beer is called that: it was originally brewed and fermented like beer, just with ginger instead of a grain, and did contain as much as 10% ABV (though these days it's not brewed anymore and is non-alcoholic). But I can't find any evidence that ginger ale ever contained alcohol, or was ever brewed like ale.

So how did it get the name ginger ale?

Solution 1:

Probably because it was originally a beer as the following extract suggests:

It all started with ginger beer, which originated in England in the 1800s. Eventually the popularity spread across the pond and Americans were also enjoying this refreshing beverage.

Ginger beer was brewed with ginger, sugar, water, lemon juice and a bacteria called “ginger beer plant” — the final product did have a small alcohol content of no more than 11 percent.

Ginger ale was purported to be first invented in 1851 in Ireland, but modern-style ginger ale came about many years later in 1907 when Canadian John McLaughlin invented it and it eventually became Canada Dry. The ginger ale was available in two versions, golden and dry (golden is rare today). The golden variety is, as it sounds, golden in color and has much more ginger flavor. The dry version is what we recognize today as ginger ale — it’s pale in color and has a mellow ginger flavor.

(huffinton.post)