Maisel’s Weisse: Alkoholfrei (Germany: Low Alcohol: 0.5% ABV)
Visual: Overripe banana yellow to caramel. Cloudy body. Very large mounded white head.
Nose: Wheat flakes. Soft lemon. Cloves. Subtle pomegranate. Coriander. Toffee.
Body: Wheaty. Slightly milky. Good thickness. Carrot and coriander. Soft lemon. Lightly peppery. Toffee.
Finish: Soft lemon. Carrot and coriander. Light hop character. Soft lime. Toffee and soft caramel. Palma violets.
Conclusion: A lot of low alcohol beers suffer from a lack of weight to them. They taste good, but there is nothing to stop you necking them down, so often they can vanish too quickly and feel kind of empty, despite the flavour, compared to a heavier beer.
I would guess it is the wheat that does it, though I can’t be sure as I have had other wheat beers that still have the issue, but this definitely doesn’t have that problem. This has a lovely, slightly milky, wheaty thickness. A weight that makes you take your time – so a good start for the beer there.
The aroma promises a lot as well. There is lovely soft lemon, which is the first of the hefe weisse style hints, followed by a lot more – giving the spice some room, some sweet notes, and even on the eye this has a cloudy, rich color that shouts the beer style. So far not losing much to the low abv at all.
Main body doesn’t quite follow through. It is more milky, and with that not quite pushing the flavours promised by the aroma, however that does help with the good, solid texture and mouthfeel. It isn’t completely lacking either, with a light but pleasant spice and sweet character that does the job well enough to be enjoyable.
The finish brings things back though, with that soft lemon coming back along with a heavier spice and sweetness. Throughout it feels like a thicker and more generally satisfying beer character than most.
So, generally good, not 100% on flavor but good enough that, when you add it to the weight and mouthfeel, it manages to more than do the job.
A very solid, slower drinking, low abv beer.
Background: Had this one quite a few times before I decided to finally do notes on it. Odd that this is comparatively easy to get – I don’t see many Maisel’s Weisse beers around – wish they were easier to get, they tend to be quite nice. Anyway, a low alcohol weisse beer, grabbed from Independent Spirit. I have a ton of beers I want to drink right now and I am relying on these low alcohol beers to give my liver a break. Went back to the 90s for Faithless: Sunday 8pm for backing music – While I prefer Reverence as an album, this has “God Is a DJ” which is so awesome. I do like their mix of dance sensibility and more melodic electronic music – I should return to them more often.
