Dreher (Italy)

Brewed by Heineken Italia
Style: Pale Lager
Milano, Italy

NorCal December ’07 - Thanks to one of the regulars who brought this back with him on a recent trip to Italy. Damn, this beer blows. I guess having to choke this crap down makes you appreciate the better beers out there. This was really hard to drink. If you plugged your nose and refrain from smelling the putrid corn and moldy, wet hay you might be able to delude yourself into thinking you aren’t drinking something this awful. Color is your typical, pale lager garbage. Medium head with no retention and melts into nothing. Mouthfeel is mineral water like. Cereal and corn in the flavor. Awful. No need to waste anymore words on this crap.

0.66l bottle (brewed at the Assemini, Sardinia plant apparently) at the Scout Pub in Samobor
Poured a pale golden colour with a medium sized thick and persistant white head, Extremely lively carbonation. The nose was kinda nice, herbal hopiness and a touch of dust. A bit weak though. The taste was soft, smooth and watery. Malt/corn sweetenss, somewhat fruity (very faint dried figs among other things), weak background dusty hopiness... a touch of metal. Hoppy aftertaste. Passable, somewhat pleasant, but dull and not all that refreshing. Heineken Italia’s main beer, brewed at 4 out of their 5 breweries apparently, and yeah, it’s as mainstream, harmless but dull as that title could signify.

This beer has a remarkable malty and grainy taste. This aromatic combination makes it rather unique to almost any other (italian) pale lager. Light bitter with a smooth finish.

33 cL can. Pours pale and clear yellow with a lasting huge white head. Grainy and malty aroma. Classic pilsner flavour, slight malty with a bitterness towards the finish. Bland.

bottle, bière blonde commerciale, sans aucun intérêt, à boire bien froide pour se désaltérer.

0.66 l bottle. Pours pale yellow body with medium head. Looks better than most of Italian beers I’ve tasted last days, but still nothing exceptional. Aroma is very pale nothing much discernible. Flavor is bitterish but watery and really uninteresting. Not bad finish though, also quite empty, too. Drinkable... Again, let’s say lower average brew.

660ml bottle: I hate these big assed bottles of poor Italian beers. With that said, this beer poured a light yellow like so many other Italian pale lagers. It had just the slightest bit of skunk in the aroma with a little bit of herbal hops. The flavor was fairly dry with a watery finish. Some hops and grain. Drinkable, and maybe better with food, but by itself, it sucks.

bottle. Pale yellow, medium head. Thirst-quenching but thin. Rather hoppy, slightly malty.