Mikkeller: Drink In The Sun 2013 1.4% (Denmark: Low abv wheat ale: 1.4% ABV)
Visual: Hazy peach skin to gold. Large off white mounded bubbles.
Nose: Passion fruit. Wheat. Hops. Lemon and meringue. Apricot. Peach. Musty berries.
Body: Robust bitterness. Grapefruit. Lemon. Apricot. Custard cream biscuits. Tangerine. Gooseberry.
Finish: Bitter hops. Sour grapes. Granite. Apricot. Custard cream biscuit.
Conclusion: So, returning to the Drink in the Sun beers, this time at a slightly bigger abv (a whole whopping 1.4% !?!) which proves to make it a bit more beer like in character. Now, considering that my only real flaw for the 0.3% version was that it occasionally did not feel beer like, especially with the tea and tannins at the end, then could this be the new, all time great, low abv beer?
Well, it has definitely lost the tea and tannins, replacing it with a robust hop character which is very welcome. However for some reason the huge fruitiness of the beer has been toned down as well. Now there is still fruitiness there, but nowhere near the insane wow factor of the 0.3% version. It is similar to the 0.5% version of nanny state where the hops are bigger than the fruit. Now if they hadn’t brought so much fruit in the 0.3% version I would have just considered that the cost of doing low abv businesses but since they obviously can I wonder why they did not. Anyway, the fruit here is brighter and more full bodied that the nanny state version, these feel more bright yellow fruit while that was slightly tarter fruit to my mind. Still it is a close enough comparison.
This is very beer like, and still reasonably fruity, but for all its tannins flaws I would say I prefer the 0.3% version as it is brighter and more pure in its delivered flavor. Now this does have a fuller feel to the body, more passion fruit and more rounded, less fresh and bright. It feels like a missed opportunity in some ways, if they could match the freshness of 0.3 with the body of this it would be the new all time great low abv beer, as it is its still nice wee low abv beer, and very good for the style. It just lacks that little bit to push it make it live up to its potential.
Background: Low abv beer hunting used to be a chore, or a way of wading through chemical nightmares. However recently I have found a few enjoyable low abv beers, so I am on a bit of a hunt for them. I recently tried the ultra low 0.3% abv version of this beer, and was looking forwards to seeing what the hugely robust 1.4% version would be like.