Rothaus: Hefeweizen: Alkoholfrei (Germany: Low alcohol: 0.5% ABV)
Visual: Ripe banana. Huge yellow to white bubbled head. Quite bit of small bubbled carbonation.
Nose: Cinnamon. Carrot and coriander. Cloves. Paprika. Soft lemon.
Body: Peppery bitterness. Vanilla. Shreddies. Mild toffee. Slightly watery. Lime. Bready bitterness.
Finish: Wheaty. Milky. Peppery bitterness. Soft lemon and lime. Flour. Slight ginger. Brown sugar. Cloves.
Conclusion: When I popped this open and poured it out I was shortly after hoping that this to be a low abv weisse to compete with the recently drunk Maisels. The color on the eye was spot on, the aroma was more spice led but very discernibly weisse like. In fact the aroma just rolled off the glass, with soft lemon pushing its way out from under the spice.
Very nice.
The body is, well, lighter. Initially a bit watery but builds up pretty quickly to an average, if not notable weight over time. Here the more spice led character seems less impressive as it only has a faint bready character backing it up. Now, it is still some nice spice range, especially leading out into some gentle ginger like notes in the finish, but without Maisel’s style weight, or a more distinct set of flavours main body to back it up, it ends up feeling nondescript.
The finish is, oddly similarly to the Maisel, better than the body. The nondescript sweetness mid body gains a brown sugar character, and a soft citrus backing comes out giving something for the spice to work with.
Overall it uses the spice well but is too reliant on them doing the work, and doesn’t have the weight to pull that off.
Mediocre but not terrible.
Background: After the Maisel’s low alcohol weisse went down so well, I saw this at BeerCraft as part of their large low abv selection, so thought I would grab a bottles and see if it could compare well, or even top that beer. Rothaus looks really familiar for some reason but I don’t think I’ve ever done notes on them before. Went back to Korn: See You On The Other Side for backing music, something a bit heavier and rough edged.
