Clausel: Gezwickelten (Luxembourg: Zwickel: 5.2% ABV)
Visual: Very pale hazy lemon juice. Loose fluffy white head.
Nose: Lemon. Light wheat chaff and flour. Low level bitterness. Slight squeezed lime. Low fluffy hop character.
Body: Malt toffee. Creamy kiwi and lime. Slight crushed rock touches. Slight flour. Low bitterness. Well attenuated dry feel. Orange juice. Hop oils. Pineapple.
Finish: Slight hop oils and bitterness. Lemon meringue and squeezed orange. Bitterness grows over time. Flour. Slight lactose. Palma violets.
Conclusion: This is quite citrusy – Which I’ve encountered a few times in unfiltered lager, wonder if it is part of the unfiltered thing, or just hop choice. Any which way, I always like it when unfiltered lagers do that – it shows what can be done when you don’t remove all the best bits from a beer.
So, a good start – lots of refreshing notes and easy to drink, with just enough hop oils and bitterness to give a mild edge to it. The general experience is akin to a citrus infused pilsner, but with lower bitterness than most pils I’ve had. Its got some of the palma violet style I associate with traditional pils noble hops choice as well.
Now, while I enjoyed it a lot it isn’t perfect – the slightly thicker than normal texture gives a nice creaminess, but also seems to bring a slightly gritty crushed rock touch that makes it a tad harsher edged than it needs to be. This is more shown in the finish, but there are hints to it in the middle of the beer. Still, I’ll take that over an inoffensively dull beer.
Generally though this is a good standby- easy to drink with the lager feel mixed with a lot of unfiltered flavor and a fun fresh citrus character.
A good go to for above average general drinking lager. If you are in a area where this is easy to get then you probably won’t regret giving it a try.
Background: Described as an unfiltered version of their Pils beer, this was brought back from Luxembourg by my friend Tony – Much appreciated! Think it is my first ever Luxembourg beer. I always like an unfiltered lager style beer, they seem to have so much more character than their filtered cousins. Decided to go old school punk with a bit of Sex Pistols for this one.
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