Lervig: No Worries (Norway: Low Alcohol: 0.5% ABV)
Visual: Slightly cloudy, light yellow. Large loose mounded white head.
Nose: Mango. Lightly wheaty. Low bitterness. Crisp hop character. Soft lemon. Vanilla. Mild pomegranate. Cake sponge.
Body: Energy drinks. Good hop character. Slight bitterness. Prickly. Soft lemon. Fluffy feel. Cake sponge. Mango.
Finish: Glucose energy drinks. Gritty bitterness. Soft, fresh lemon. Soft mango. Vanilla. Cake sponge. Heavier bitterness over time.
Conclusion: OK, lots of good point to this. So I am going to start with the main bad point. I’m just kind of contrary like that.
The bad point is one common to a lot of low alcohol beers – and it is actually not tannin like notes this time. For once. Instead this leans more towards a soft glucose energy drink style. Not the worst element but a very clear tell that the beer has less weight to it than a higher abv would.
Against that is a moderate, prickly hop character that pushes only moderate bitterness bit in a kind of gravely way that makes it feel heavier than it otherwise would. The bitterness slowly raises in the finish to give a solid kick to the end. It feels quite dry in the finish, giving an attenuated APA kind of feel to the hops.
The fruitiness of most IPAs these days is there as well, though not as heavy. There is slight dry mango and very soft lemon which make up the main thrust of it. A bit of a different take to a lot of the IPAs these days, let alone low alcohol IPAs, decent if not world shattering in taste.
Generally another decent low alcohol beer. We are spoiled for them at the mo. This one could do with a few tweaks, but generally does the job in a satisfying fashion.
Background: Low alcohol beer! Yep, that is a common thing on this blog now. Live with it. Another one grabbed from Beercraft who always seem to have a decent low abv selection. Lervig have done me solid so far, so hope they can bring their A game to a low abv beer. Though admittedly most of the stuff from them I have tried was on the higher end of the abv scale. Went with Nine Inch Nails: Further Down The Spiral for drinking music. Their version of Hurt was the original and is still the best.
