Trinken für drei- Drinking for Three: an Alcohol-free Beer Taste Test

You've heard the saying that pregnant ladies are eating for two when they are carrying a little one; but now that Mrs. Bier von Westfall is pregnant, I've been joking with people that I'm drinking for three. Thankfully we're in a country where there's a rich beer culture and that extends to the beer's lesser thought of cousin, what's referred to in German as alkoholfrei bier.

The line up of beers

In Germany, alcohol free beer is marketed as a healthy alternative to normal beer: it's about half as caloric, it's better for your liver, and it's a good post workout drink that helps to replenish the body's fluids.

While the vast majority of these beers taste like something is missing (because it is!) there's a whole range and so Mrs. Bier von Westfall and I wanted to find the best. We decided to have a taste test of four pilsner style alcohol free beers to help determine best "beer-like" pregnancy beverage.

When evaluating the beers, we each took notes on: appearance, aroma, flavor and any other comments about the beer and also whether it would be mistaken for a regular beer.

Clausthaler's Extra Herb

This is a brew from the large German brewery group Radeberger made in our current town of Frankfurt. It's described as on the website as (some good translation here): A balanced alcohol-free lager. Fresh and easy to drink. It is brewed with the finest malted barley and hops in the choicest, globally unique and patented brewing process in which only no alcohol is formed, which would subsequently be again removed. Pleasantly intense hops. Creamy on the palate, the sweetness of taste is balanced by a mild bitterness.

Annie's Comments
Appearance: looks like beer to me!
Aroma: smells kind of roasted.
Flavor: "extra herb" is a fitting description.
Notes: it's on the lighter side. very one dimensional. good, but one is enough. sort of in the middle, all around. Not bad.
Real beer? no.  

Michael's Comments 

Appearance: straw colored, crystal clear with a slightly off white head. 5-7 SRM.
Aroma: very grainy with a slight sulphur end.
Flavor: a strong initial grain flavor that immediately thins to an almost water finish.
Notes: decent beer, very easy drinker with a decent amount of flavor at the beginning that has a slight hint of herbal hop character. Just alright.
Real beer? Not a chance.

Bitburger Pils 0.0%

This alcohol free pils is marketed by Bitburger as a healthy post-workout drink. The description from their website says:  It convinces with vitamins and isotonic effect - and is the perfect refreshment. Naturally brewed according to the German purity law. The only alcohol-free isotonic beer with 0.0% alcohol.

Annie's Comments

Appearance: same as the other, very light yellow

Aroma: slight smell of cat litter... maybe I'm pregnant. 

Flavor: smooth, pretty flat, overall unoffensive. 

Notes: I like the first one better. Hard to get past the smell, but ultimately fairly drinkable. I'd probably just stick to water if this was my only option though. It does smell better once it's warmed a bit. No depth of flavor, what you smell is basically what you taste. 

Real Beer? NO

Michael's Comments

Appearance: very light yellow-straw colored. thin, short lasting head. 4-6 SRM.

Aroma: smells like a mash before it's fermented. very grainy. 

Flavor: grassy, grainy sweet malt flavor with a very slight hint of herbal hops (like they might have been in the room when it was brewed but never made it into the kettle). 

Notes: a good breakfast drink. a malt dominated flavor without a very little amount of noble hop presence. 

Real Beer? Not exactly. 

Alcohol-free Tannenzäpfle

This pilsner is the alcohol free version of Rothaus Brewery's beer named after the little pine cones that adorn the bottle's label and inspire the shape of the bottle. It's said that these pine cones grow upwards, so because it's depicted downwards on the label, one must turn it upside down and drink!  

On their website Rothaus goes into the process they use for producing this beer: To escape our beer alcohol while preserving its well-balanced taste, we were looking for a completely new way and found it. Based on an innovative, newly developed system, we can obtain almost all the flavors in the beer. First, the finished beer is gently heated in a vacuum, so the alcohol evaporates at 35 degrees.

Annie's Comments

Appearance: slightly lighter than the others.

Aroma: mild, very pleasant. 

Flavor: YUM! now this tastes like beer!

Notes: I may be biased because of the nostalgia factor--we drank regular Tannenzapfle on our first trip to Germany together--but I love this!! Smooth, drinkable, doesn't scream alcohol free. 

Real Beer? YES!

Michael's Comments

Appearance: similar color to others, slightly whiter head. 4-6 SRM. 

Aroma: sweet malt initial nose, with a slight sulphur finish

Flavor: very much like the regular TZ, a malty sweetness that has the good balance of faint grass/herbal hop flavor coupled with a quenching dryness that makes it highly drinkable. 

Notes: Would drink again, the best so far. 

Real Beer? Yeah. 

Jever Fun

This is the alcohol free version of my favorite German Pils. The mineral content of the water used in the brewing process gives it a unique flavor and aroma, a delicate mix of sweet herbal hop character coupled with a faint sulfuric whiff. Once you've had it, you'll not soon forget it. 

The great pitch from the Jever website:
The alcohol-free Jever Fun is the perfect thirst quencher for those who like to have fun
and are active - in short, the perfect companion for any business enterprise
beyond the everyday. Whether you're with your friends on the go BMX
or balancing on a tightrope, Jever FUN always provides the right refreshment. Have fun out there!

Annie's Comments

Appearance: very light, lots of carbonation. 

Aroma: sweet, with a hint of that acrid smell (that was present in the Bitburger, but not as pronounced here). 

Flavor: moves over your tongue, starting in middle and branching out to the sides. tastes a lot like beer from college.

Notes: This is the only one of these beers that has a dynamic flavor; all the rest are very one dimensional. This has that roasted finish that isn't my favorite. Decent, but very much reminds me of college (before I knew beer could taste good). 

Real Beer? kinda

Michael's Comments

Appearance: looks like it might be the lightest of the four, 2.5-5 SRM

Aroma: signature Jever nose: slightly skunky but also sweet malty hints

Flavor: this has the most herbal hop bitterness of the four, good wave of flavors. 

Notes: makes me thirsty, a good overall take on regular Jever, and a very thirst quenching beer. 

Real Beer? Borderline.

The clear winner of the four was the Rothaus Tannenzäpfle, it was the most like a regular beer. It had a good, lasting body that didn't just jump off your tongue after the first sip like some of the others. But ultimately, we poured the majority of the alkoholfrei beers (Annie did drink the remainder of the Rothaus) and I got a real beer. 

29 weeks and counting... 

  

Nord Rheinländisch Biertreffen

Uerige

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of tagging along with my newly minted beer friend Don, a fellow American who is also currently living in Bonn. He organized a meet-up of like-minded beer enthusiasts in Düsseldorf and Cologne, the two largest cities in Nordrhine-Westfalen. The plan was to hit up several breweries in these two rival Rhineland cities to sample some of the fine offerings typical of each city's unique, hybrid beer style and then end up at a bar in Cologne for a bottle share.

I say that the two cities are rivals because each is known for their interpretation of an ale made in a lager fashion, that is a top fermented beer that is fermented at colder than usual temperatures for ales and then lagered meaning it is stored at or below freezing temperatures to ensure a smoother, cleaner tasting final product. Despite these two cities' relative geographic closeness (which I recently learned was closer than Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas--to use the (in)famous American way of trying to wrap ones mind around world geography), the two styles are considerably different. I've had German friends tell me that if you are to order an Alt in Cologne (or vice versa, a Kölsch in Düsseldorf) the waiter if he doesn't ignore you completely will bring you a glass of water accompanied by scowl.

Hailing from Düsseldorf, there's the beer style known as Altbier, which is a light amber to deep copper colored beer with a long-lasting, thick, off-white head that boasts a complex aroma of bright maltiness, albeit overall very clean owing to its time spent at low temperatures, mixed with a light, German hop nose that comes out in a range from peppery to more floral notes. The taste is an initial, slight bitterness that is, when done well, balanced with a crisp maltiness that ranges from nutty to very dry with a slight sulfur finish. Like Cologne's Kölsch, Altbier is typically served colder than most other German beers in small, similarly straight-walled glasses and brought around by the waiters, also like in Cologne called Köbes, in wreath-like trays in a subscription fashion (that is they are brought to you in a borderline aggressive way before you finish your last sips). The Köbes keep track of the beers they bring you by pencil hash marks on your beermat, which you place atop your glass when you have decided you've had enough. 

Two Köbes waiting for kegs from a beer elevator 

While there was good response of potential participants on the beeradvocate's forum for German beer discussions, we had a more lean showing that what lacked in numbers was made up for in enthusiasm. There was also a range of travel that was required for this meetup; with one committed enthusiast's trip originating from his new home of Luxembourg (just over 4 hours away) to another who was able to join on foot from his home in Düsseldorf, with Don and I enjoying a nice, relatively short, one hour journey.

Around 11 AM, we found our way to Düsseldorf's Altstadt area to the arguably most well known of Altbreweries, Zum Uerige (www.uerige.de). Because it was still pretty early in the day, we were able to position our group in a corner of the front room just steps away from the beautiful copper bar where the Köbes hammer away at the kegs, filling the small glasses and positioning them in the trays. And within seconds of sitting down, we had cold glasses of Alt in hand. After initial introductions, the group delved into some good beer conversation over a couple of mid-day rounds that hit typical topics ranging from upcoming European beer festivals (Alvinne and Brugge both in Belgium) to recently consumed and traded beer and then venturing to where the logical next stop would be. Upon paying, we confirmed with the waiter that Uerige brewery had a small version of their bar in the basement of an upscale department store a short walk away that served their typical Alt, as well as an unfiltered version that is sometimes available. Although, once we got to the basement bar, we found out that they did not have the unfiltered version so we opted to grab a quick bite for lunch elsewhere. 

Schumacher's 1838er

After lunch, we walked back towards the city's Central Station and landed at the oldest of the famed Alt producers, Brauerei Schumacher (www.schumacher-alt.de). Here the group was interested to sample the beer called 1838er, which is Schumacher's riff on the typical Alt style. Originally brewed in 2013 in commemoration of Schumacher's 175th anniversary, 1838er is made with American Citra and Australian Galaxy hops giving it a much more pronounced hop aroma and flavor, a nice matrix of a subtle grapefruit nose and an almost berry-like flavor mixed with the typical Alt maltiness. While the Düsseldorfer in the group estimated that the beer we had was at about 60-70% of its optimal brightness, it was an intriguing take on the historical Alt style which should be on top of any beer traveler's list when in the area.

Alt being drawn from the keg

The group then jumped on a regional train and headed the 28 miles south the Cologne to continue the day of sampling Rheinländisch beer. In Cologne, we were on the hunt for some Alt's paler cousin, Kölsch. I won't go into the finer aspects of the beer so much here, since I've already written at length about its storied history here: A Beer You Can Subscribe to: Kölsch. We went to Päffgen Brauhaus, which has an amazing space replete with all the fixings that one would hope for in a classic beer hall and serves a solid version of the style.

Next we headed to Malzmühle (www.muehlenkoelsch.de/)
This great example of a Kölsch bar is within a 5 minute walk from the famous Dom. You enter the Malt Mill through one of two revolving doors, the left one leads you to the

restaurant/bar that turns out traditional German fare which pairs well with the beer, and the other opens to a more

Mühlen Kölsch at Malzmühle

straight-ahead drinker's den. They both serve Mühlen Kölsch which is a perfect example of the the style: clear straw color with a slight bone-white head, slightly maltier than some other varieties with a great noble hop aroma and taste with a clean, dry finish.

After our share of German beer of the area, we headed to Braustelle (www.braustelle.com) for the bottle share. I brought two beers that hold special significance for me, one from the brewery that I worked at before moving to Germany, Singlecut Beersmith's Billy Full Stack Imperial IPA; and one from my friends at the brewery from the town where I was born and raised, Jackie O's Bourbon Barrel Wood Burner. I won't go into much detail other than to say we had a fun time sampling a wide variety of styles from both Europe and the USA.