I came across these two examples and I don't see why one takes に and one takes
は.

> 彼女の **ほかに** 知り合いはいません。  
>  I have no acquaintances besides her.

> ビールの **ほかは** 何もいりません。  
>  I don't need anything other than beer.

I searched for older questions on the same topic but didn't find anything
conclusive.
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particle-に particle-は
Difference Between ほかに and ほかは
Based on the [Weblio](https://ejje.weblio.jp/sentence/) entries to these
expressions, it seems to me that ほかに can be equated to "besides" and ほかは to
"apart from".

Moreover the は is putting emphasis on the ほか, putting the focus on the _other_
thing, whereas ほかに sounds a little more casual.

Ex.:

そのほかにしかたがない。 these is no other way besides this one

そのほかはしかたがない。 these is no other way apart from this one

ほかに is used in situations where you'd ask someone if they want something else
from the store, whereas ほかは is used in more serious scenarios, like when you
want to say that there's no other way to do something.

However, the difference is very subtle and both can be used in either
situation.

The sentence "ビールのほかは何もいりません。" puts more focuses on the _other_ things than
"彼女のほかに知り合いはいません。" does.

If the second sentence was used in an argument with a girlfriend, I'd also use
ほかは rather than ほかに like so: 彼女のほかは知り合い **が** いません。

When looking at the translation
[DeepL](https://www.deepl.com/translator#ja/en/%E5%BD%BC%E5%A5%B3%E3%81%AE%E3%81%BB%E3%81%8B%E3%81%AB%E7%9F%A5%E3%82%8A%E5%90%88%E3%81%84%E3%81%AF%E3%81%84%E3%81%BE%E3%81%9B%E3%82%93%E3%80%82)
gives for either sentence, the grammatical difference becomes quite clear I
think:

彼女のほかに知り合いはいません。 I don't know anyone else besides her.

彼女のほかは知り合いはいません。 Other than her, I don't know anyone else.
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I'd imagine this to be part of a bigger conversation, as in, something similar
to:

> 柔道をやっている知り合いの方、いませんか？

> 彼女のほかに知り合いはいません。

In this case, you are stating that you don't have friends other than her (who
knows Judo), because you are being asked if you have acquaintances who does
Judo, even if you have other friends or have non-friends that does Judo. On
the other hand, had you replied:

> 彼女のほかは知り合いがいません。(note the I changed the second は→が)

You are stating unequivocally that you have no friends other than her, and it
wouldn't be clear whether she knows Judo from that answer. Probably a very
good way to kill the conversation quickly.

-- Starfox
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