Al-Ahram Beverages: Meister Max (Egypt: Strong Lager: 8% ABV)
Visual: Clear pale gold with middling white bubbled head that leaves suds. Moderate small bubbled carbonation.
Nose: Crushed Blackpool rock. Banana soft sweets. Raw white sugar.
Body: Kind of bready mouthfeel. Notable clean alcohol character, that builds to rougher alcohol raw spirit character over time. Brown and white sugar crystals.
Finish: Raw alcohol spirit. Brown bread. Rough vodka.
Conclusion: So, this has an interesting aroma. Banana candy sweet esters, Blackpool rock. Sweet, not super complex but distinct and a non standard range? Is this going to be the Egyptian beer that turns things around and turns out a real banger rather than just there and passable stuff?
No. It is shit.
The aroma promise does not pay off in any way, shape or form. What you get is mostly alcohol. It feels grogged. Initially it is quiet clean alcohol which is not the best in itself but it quickly becomes rougher and rougher into a generally just painful bad vodka feel layered over a slightly bready, slightly thicker mouthfeel.
Apart from that it is just ..empty. If you are lucky you get some residual sugar notes to play with, otherwise just unrestrained, badly handled alcohol.
So, erm, yeah, apart from a barely above dull, slightly interesting aroma this has zero else to recommend it. Just avoid it, it is liquid embarrassment to the concept of a beer.
Background: So, I was warned. Too late, but I was warned. When I started doing notes on Egyptian beers a kind person commented warning me not, in any circumstance, to drink this beer. Unfortunately they were too late as I was already back from Egypt with my set of notes, but I thank them for the attempt. So, going by the Al-Ahram website it is “With its 8% alcohol, Meister Max is a beer for a new and daring men generation. Meister Max was the first high alcohol beer to be launched in the Egyptian market, where it has the edge of being the beer that offers you power, taste and style all at the same time.” With the emphasis on “men” and that prose I am surprised this did not come in a bottle that was tactical black, you know, for MEN.
Someone in Egypt referred to it as “the best beer in Egypt”,or something like that, however I am 90% sure he was a non drinker and just passing on what he had heard so I do not blame him. I had access to limited glassware in Egypt, so improvised with best I could grab. This was grabbed from a “Drinkies”. Supermarkets don’t stock alcoholic beer in Egypt, so you need to hit a specialist shop and “Drinkies” seems to be the most common, little places that pop up most places and all have a quite similar selection of stuff. However considering nearly every hotel bar, etc just have Stella and Sakara Gold, finding some outside of that to try made me, temporarily, happy.
