Destinations Magazine

Alcohol Free Beer – Blind Tasting

By Emma @glasgowfoodie

As it’s Dry January / Dryathalon time, and as the Scottish government recently made changes to the legal alcohol limit in Scotland meaning that it’s not safe to drive if you’ve been within 100 yards of a pub in the last 24 hours, we thought we would organize a blind alcohol-free beer tasting…

Low alcohol beer taste test

Low alcohol beer taste test

Erdinger Low alcohol beer taste test

Erdinger alkoholfrei

Low alcohol beer taste test

Morrison’s own brand pilsner

Hee haw Low alcohol beer taste test

Hee Haw by Tennents

Krombacher Low alcohol beer taste test

Krombacher non-alcoholic

Alhambra Low alcohol beer taste test

Alhambra Sin

Low alcohol beer taste test

Bottles and beer lined up

Mrs Foodie lined them up for Mr Foodie to taste. His tasting notes:

Beer 1
Look: Bubbles, decent head, clear light amber
Aroma: metal/pils
Taste: lemony, malty, bitter, actually not bad for alcohol-free

Beer 2
Look: clear but darker than beer 1, bubbly with flat head.
Aroma: grain/metal – smells like a pilsner
Taste: very little taste, sweet, bitter, metally, watery…flat

Beer 3
Look: clear, medium bubbles, flat head
Aroma: metal, caramel, slightly unpleasant
Taste: creamy butterscotch (think Werthers originals)

Beer 4
Look: clear, bubbly, decent head
Aroma: sweet cereal, reminds us of “Start” cereal!
Taste: sweet, sweet honey

Beer 5
Look: bubbly but no head
Aroma: sweet honey
Taste: a bit flat, lemony with mild bitterness

Beer 1 was Erdinger alkoholfrei
Beer 2 was Morrisons low alcohol Czech lager
Beer 3 was Alhambra sin alcohol
Beer 4 was Krombacher non-alcoholic
Beer 5 was Tennents Hee Haw

And the verdict: Erdinger was the winner with Krombacher a close second! Mr Foodie was releaved to have picked both the German beers 1st and 2nd!

We also tried two other beers seperately, Maisel’s Weisse alkoholfrei – a lively cloudy wheaty malty attemot that was drinkable and Schneider Weisse Mein Alkoholfreies which was also very lively, sweet and wheaty like liquid bread, but we still reckon the Erdinger bottle was the best overall.


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