Holsten Non-Alcoholic

Brewed by Holsten-Brauerei (Carlsberg)
Style: Low Alcohol
Hamburg, Germany

My thanks to the Germans for producing a truly flavorful 0.0% alcohol beer...for those who want the taste of beer minus the bad effects of ethanol.

The bottle looks very good. The beer is very zippy, for a non-alcohol beer a very fine foam. Tastes a little bit as the normal Holsten, really not bad, a good alternative to a normal beer.

50 cL bottle, as Holsten Alkoholfrei Premium. Pours clear and golden yellow with a creamy white head. Aroma is mild malty and slight cardboardish. Dry malty and slight sweet cornish flavour. Mild bitterness coming through. Light acidic touch. Quite well made NA.

Biggish shiny white head does not last. Yellow body with carbonation. Medicinal straw and grain aroma, somewhat chemical. Dry slightly hoppy straw taste with chalky notes. Some rubber. No aftertaste. Not bad. (0.33l bottle at Ashburnham Arms, Greenwich.)

I’ll start off by stating that i think there is a time and place for alcohol free beer. There is certainly a market. I long for the day I can drink great low alcohol (or alcohol free) examples of my favourite beers. The only issue to date has been whether the end product actually meets the marketing hype. This beer has done well in the IBC (frankly a competition I don’t have much time for - packaging for pity sakes!) but could it deliver on taste... Aroma: A heavy graininess with touches of wort and light hay hop aroma. Overall it doesn’t turn me off. It has the metal note of some non-alco beers but (thankfully) restrained. Appearance: brilliantly clear golden with nice head retention and beading. Presents well. Flavour: It tastes rather absent at the start of the palate, going malty through the middle and finishing with a nice hop punch at the end (grassy, sandal wood, hay). There is a real metallic twang at the end which is quite nasty. Unfortunately the twang doesn’t really go away after a few sips. Palate: Full bodied, nice prickly mouthfeel with carbonation. Balanced bitterness - if not a little restrained overall. Overall: The search for non-alcoholic Nirvana continues but at least this beer is better than most. I would seek this out if I had to drink no-alco beer.

bottle. Clear golden yellow, large and persistent head. Hoppy nose. Typical flavours of non-alcoholic beers, perhaps a bit more hoppy and bitter than usual. To be honest I thought this was rather decent for an alcohol-free beer, I’ve had worse ones.

Again skunkiness . Looks like real suff I must say , but will not try again .

One of 19 non-alcoholic brews I tried during a 4-month deployment in Kuwait, because that’s all I could get. 10/29/05 (can): Poured dark yellow with a thin foggy white head. Very sweet bready aroma. Initially a light smooth malty drink, but then a sharp acidic, almost lemony bite of starchiness takes this down a notch.