Franconian Beer Message Board
Super-Low-Gravity |
| Posted by Nick B. on 2011-11-21 23:34:49 |
| "3% - that's really low alcohol! There used to be a few low gravity beers sold in the UK but it seems to be a dying fashion." Yes, 3% is really on the border of enjoyability: I'm going to go for 3.5% with the next few batches. But this is also the alcohol content of the various "Weizen Leicht" beers here, as well as a few undrinkably bad "Pils Leicht" and "Keller Leicht" (the latter from Mahr's, actually). The difference is, I use hops to make up for lack of malt flavour. And it works. Not sure if I'd agree that super-low-gravity ales like these are dying in the UK, as I encounter them on my travels quite easily. Not all are really that good though--see my photos from the Brau-Beviale beer engines for a couple of exceptions: Hook Norton mild at 3.2% and the most sublime Hawkshead Pale at 3.5%. These two, incidentally, are about as opposite from each other as you can get with such beers. The former is a sweetish mild (one pint's enough), the latter is as pale, dry, and hoppy as you can ask for in such a beer...and is really the standard that I try to brew at home. I actually enjoyed a half of casked John Smith's at The Piccadilly just up Piccadilly from Piccadilly Station in Mncr on a recent trip. It was an okay first-half-pint-of-the-trip-whilst waiting-on-the-next-train-to-Sheffield. A proper, old fashioned English bitter. We used to get the kegged stuff at an "Irish" pub here in Erlangen. I don't really miss it. |