DAB Original

Brewed by Dortmunder Actien Brauerei (Oetker Group)
Style: Dortmunder/Helles
Dortmund, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

I tried this a few years ago and took a liking to it, so I was pleased to find it on the shelves of my local Morrisons. Either it’s changed, or my palate has...but this was a big disappointment, it lacks on most fronts, aroma, flavour, body and palate.

Had this from a green bottle. Color seems promising, nice skeletal head that leaves before it should. The palate is very nice, a little heavy for pilsner but spot on for the style. A nice grainy malt backbone is delicatly balanced by a slight, stinky hop bitterness. I’m sure this is a good beer somewhere, but the light skunk that this beer went through ruins it for me.

Can. Clear pale golden,almost yellow, with a big rocky head. Bready malts aroma with grassy hoppiness that borders to wet cardboard. Flavours are very bready, with a clean, semi-dry finish, leaving the mouth dry. Not a contender for my favorite beer, but does the job.

I reckon this is pretty good. Good straight from the bottle and pretty good value.

Oh dear, how to rate this. I used to get this alot, maybe 12 years ago, in cans, and always found it to be a nice solid lager with a firm hoppiness. But, I wasn’t very good at beer tasting back then and I’ve always resisted rating this from memory. So, spying it on the beer store shelf on a recent vacation, I couldn’t help grabbing a single bottle for a rating - also noticing it was a green one. I should’ve known, not just from the green glass, but from passing on all the Schlafly’s next to it that were clearly marked as out of date. Who know’s how long this one had been sitting in the light. Later that night, popping the cap in the hotel, the room immediately filled with a waft of skunk. Still, its not the store’s fault these guys use green glass. I let it sit for a bit and poured. The skunk settled down and I could get some light bready malts and maybe a cobwebby grassy hop. Flavor was clean and light, not watery, with just a touch of bready malt, some spiciness and a medium bitter finish. I still think this could be really nice if fresh and in a can like I used to get it. Nice golden color, if a bit bubbly, but poured a surprisingly creamy white head.

From the tap, served in a pilsener glass. Poured a clear pale yellow hued golden with a fluffy, foamy white head that settled into a thin sudsy lacing, minimal amount of sticking. Had a nose of spicy, grassy hops and sweet pale malts. Good carbonation and a softly crisp, smooth, at times watery, light bodied mouthfeel. Bland, but at times weird tasting, off balanced, sweet pilsener malts with a metallic twang, spicy, earthy hops, a soft bitterness, followed by a lemony zing and a sweet metallic malty finish with a quick lemony flavor that is overtaken again by the metallic malts in the aftertaste. Average pilsener drinkability. Had this at lunch today with a hamburger, really didn’t go with it, for me personally, metallic malts and hamburgers don’t mix.

Can. Light aroma, light appearance, light flavor, light palate... light everything.

Bottle. Amber hue. Weak aroma, with a okay appearance. Ordinary is about as well as I can sum this one up.