Bitburger Radler

Brewed by Bitburger Brauerei Th. Simon
Style: Fruit Beer
Bitburg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany

330 ml bottle sampled@RBNAG 2009, Vatlandsvåg. Very pale body with a collapsing white head. Aroma of lemon and soap. Flavor is lemon-flavored sodapop, pretty one-dimensional and almost impossible to find any traces of beer here. My first and probably last Radler. I really don’t see any point in rating this stuff, this is only tickerjuice as far as I can see. You have to come up with something real to convince me this is rating material.
And by the way, I don’t like sodapop either

Bottle (or was it can?), ABV 2.5%, at RBNAG 2009 in Vatlandsvåg. The first radler or shandy that I’ve actually rated. Pale golden colour, low head. Aroma of lemon soda and dishwater liquid. Flavour of lemon soda with hints of a standard pilsener.

Bottle 33 cl. Courtesy of yespr. Pours a clear pale yellow with a dense white head. Lightly sweet and synthetic lemon aroma. Light body, sweet but also sulphurous with light notes of lemon. Dry, sulphurous finish. 050709

Bottled. Pale yellowish colour, small white head. Aroma is fruits and some mild malts. Flavour is quite much the same. Not very pleasant.

33 cL bottle. Pours pale yellow with a small white head. Crisp citrusy and beery aroma. Flavour is mild citiric and crisp. Light beer accent. Ends citric and light grassy.

Bottled. A light golden beer with white head. The aroma has notes of lemon and sweet malt. The flavor is sweet with strong notes of lemon, medium notes of artificial sweetener, and light notes of malt.

Poured a very pale champagne colour with no head at all. Clear and good carbonation with a zesty lemon aroma. Very thin and watery flavour.

How can a solid brewer like Bitburger produce this disaster? Its a shandy as far as I can tell. Sweet lemonade flavour with a cloying beer somewhere in there. Pale soft drink colour and look.