Yeast is included with every kit above. Dextrose is not — add it to your order here.

Colony West Stone Ginger Beer — the value pick

At $16.45 for 23 litres, Colony West is the cheapest way into ginger beer brewing and the one we recommend for a first attempt. It brews the classic spicy old stones style — the dry, sharp ginger beer that predates the sweeter commercial versions — and everything you need beyond sugar is in the tin.
For the alcoholic version you’ll need 1kg of dextrose on top of the tin — budget for that when comparing it against the dearer kits. For a soft drink version, skip the dextrose entirely.
The trade-off is time. Colony West wants four weeks of maturation against two to three for most others, and it genuinely improves over that period. If you’re brewing for something specific, start it five weeks out.

Morgans Ginger Beer Kit — the all-rounder

Morgans blends malted grains with ginger, which gives a rounder, less sharp result than a pure ginger extract. It’s the most forgiving kit here and the one that most reliably produces something people want a second glass of.
Add 1kg of dextrose for the alcoholic version, which lands around 3.5%. For a soft drink, use roughly 115g of sugar for carbonation and nothing more. Makes 20 litres, ready in about three weeks all up.
If you’re not sure which to pick and you’re brewing for a mixed group, this is the safe answer.

Mangrove Jack’s Ginger Beer Pouch — freshest ingredients

The pouch format is the point here. Mangrove Jack’s quick-chill and nitrogen-flush the contents, which preserves considerably more of the volatile ginger aroma than a heat-processed tin. You get a brighter, fresher ginger nose as a result.
You’ll need to add 1kg of dextrose, which isn’t included — factor that into the price. Standard mid-strength lands around 3.5%, and you can push higher with more sugar.
23 litres, ready in around three weeks.

Coopers Ginger Beer Extract Kit — the familiar name

Coopers is the name most Australians already associate with home brewing, and this is the same recipe as their classic can in a smaller format — a 500g extract that makes 10 litres rather than the 20–23 of everything else here.
That halved batch size is the reason to choose it. Ten litres is about 26 stubbies, which suits a smaller household, a first experiment, or anyone without the fridge and cupboard space to store two cartons of ginger beer. It also means less wasted if you decide the style isn’t for you.
The flavour is bright, zesty ginger with a warm spice kick behind it. Add 500g of dextrose and you’ll land around 3.5% ABV; leave the dextrose out and you get an alcohol-free version at roughly 0.7%, carbonated in the bottle rather than fermented in the tub. Coopers’ own specially selected yeast sachet is included either way.
If you already brew Coopers beer kits, the process and the equipment you own will carry straight across.

Buderim Ginger Beer Kit — the premium ginger hit

Buderim is the most ginger-forward kit we stock, and the only one built on real ginger syrup rather than an extract — 80% real ginger, sourced from their Sunshine Coast factory. If your complaint about commercial ginger beer is that it doesn’t taste enough of ginger, this is the one.
It makes 20 litres — about 53 stubbies — at around 4% ABV. The concentrate arrives with yeast nutrients and a ginger-beer-specific yeast already matched to it, but you’ll need to add 1kg of dextrose separately.
Buderim handles alcohol-free differently from the others. Rather than stopping fermentation early, you skip the yeast altogether and mix the concentrate straight with soda water — about 50mL per 950mL. That’s a cordial, not a brew, so it’s ready immediately.
Good on its own over ice in summer, and it holds up as a mixer with dark rum and lime where the lighter kits get lost.

Southern Tap Ginger Beer Kit — the premium one

This is the outlier on the page, and the one worth reading about before you choose.
Southern Tap build their ginger beer on a base of Hawke’s Bay apple juice concentrate rather than malt or a sugar syrup, and ferment it with cider yeast. Technically that makes it closer to a cider than a traditional ginger beer — but the apple sits underneath rather than on top, giving a clean, faintly fruity backdrop that carries the ginger instead of competing with it. Their own description puts it best: ginger beer without the beer.
The ginger is real root, not extract or flavouring, and the result has a genuine punch on the nose that the concentrate-based kits don’t reach.
What makes it premium:
Real ginger root and premium apple concentrate, no artificial flavouring
50% less sugar than commercial ginger beer, and no preservatives
Organic yeast and organic nutrient sachets included
No carbonation drops or syrups needed — just add water and ferment
You’ll need 500g of dextrose, and Campden tablets are worth adding if you want to stabilise the batch after fermentation. Makes 20 litres.
The people behind it
Southern Tap is a father-and-son operation based in Tai Tapu, just outside Christchurch in New Zealand. They make a small range of dry craft cider kits built on real fruit rather than concentrate-and-sweetener — French Cider Apple, Strawberry, Lemonade and this Ginger Beer. It’s a small-producer range, which is why the ingredient list reads differently from the mass-market tins above.
When to choose it
This is the summer drink. Served properly cold it’s crisp and dry rather than sweet, which is what most commercial ginger beer gets wrong — and the low sugar means it doesn’t cloy after the second glass.
Pick it if you want the best-tasting result on this page and don’t mind paying for it, or if sugar content matters to you. Pick one of the tins above if you want the traditional malty ginger beer character, or if you’re brewing for a crowd and price per litre is the deciding factor.

Alcoholic or non-alcoholic — you decide, not the kit

This trips up most first-time brewers. Every kit on this page makes both, and the switch is sugar.
Soft drink — little or no added dextrose, bottled early. Under 1% ABV. Colony West, Morgans, Mangrove Jack’s and Coopers all do this by shortening the ferment; Buderim does it by mixing the concentrate with soda water and leaving the yeast out.
Standard — 1kg of dextrose for a 20–23L batch, fermented out over six to seven days. Lands around 3.5–4%.
Full strength — more dextrose again pushes you toward 7–8%, though the ginger character thins out as you go up.
Our non-alcoholic ginger beer guide covers stopping fermentation safely, and the alcoholic ginger beer recipe walks through a full 20-litre batch with exact quantities.
One thing to take seriously either way: ginger beer builds carbonation harder than beer. Use crown-seal or flip-top bottles rated for pressure, never twist-tops, and never bottle before the hydrometer says fermentation has finished.

Complete Kits — Equipment Included

The kits above are refills. If you’re starting from nothing, these include the gear as well as the ingredients.

Mad Millie takes the traditional route rather than the concentrate route — more hands-on, and a popular choice for brewing alcohol-free for the family. It’s the lowest-commitment way to try the style with equipment included.
Our Alcoholic Ginger Beer 5L Kit is the only one here built on fresh ginger root rather than an extract or syrup, which gives a noticeably hotter, brighter result than anything in the refill table. Use 300–400g of dextrose for a 4–5% brew, or 800–1,000g for 7–8%. The 5L batch is about seven bottles, which suits experimenting before you commit 23 litres to a recipe.
The four-tier starter kits are the full 20-litre setups — Basic at $174 through to Ultra at $314 with temperature control. Ginger beer ferments best at a stable 20–24°C, and a cold garage will stall it halfway, which is what the Ultra solves.

Alcoholic or non-alcoholic — you decide, not the kit

Which should you buy?

If you already own brewing equipment:

If you’re starting from scratch: