system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do ginger ale and root beer have beer references to their names but taste nothing like beer?
gpt
In the traditional recipes, these drinks are brewed/fermented just like beer is. If “beer” is what you get when you malt grain and let it ferment, and “wine” is what you get when you let grape juice ferment, there are all sorts of recipes for taking some blend of herbs and spices and letting it ferment to make a drink. Often those herbs don't have a high enough sugar content on their own, so you add (a lot, usually) of extra sugar and that's what's feeding most of the fermentation but the herbs add flavor.

So, if you ferment dandelion flowers (along with other ingredients and lots of sugar) you get “dandelion wine”, if you ferment ginger (plus stuff) you get “ginger ale”, if you ferment birch sap—which has less sugar than maple sap, but still has its own sugars—you get “birch beer”, and if you ferment sassafras roots (plus stuff) you get “root beer”.

The fermentation isn't usually very strong, and people would get more carbon dioxide than alcohol, but that's ok too because it made a pleasantly fizzy drink. These recipes became very popular in the early-to-mid 1700's and were the origin of what would eventually become modern soda pop.