Clausthaler Original (Non-Alcoholic/Alkoholfrei)
Binding-Brauerei AG

 

 

Bottled: 07/01/23

L: Pours a crystal clear pale straw to straw color with three fingers of fine, white head. Good retention as the head slowly falls to 5 mm ring with a pillowy sheet in the interior of the glass leaving a nice splotchy, webbed lacing on the glass as it goes down.

S: On the nose I get grainy malt character with a touch of sweet honey, floral notes, and light notes of noble hop spice. No skunk at all.

T: The palate presents a sweet malty character, floral notes, and a prominent spiciness that comes in on the finish obliterating the initial sweetness and lending a nice medium bitterness. No detectable skunkiness.

F: Medium-light body with medium carbonation. The mouthfeel is smooth with a crisp, dry finish.

O: If I didn't know better I would think I was drinking a Pilsner. That being said, if I was rating it as a Pils it would not be this high, but as a NA beer it excels and is in my top three of NA beers. Highly recommended!

Bottle. Clear golden color. think I prefer the dry hopped version a bit better. Both are excellent NA offerings and drink like a normal pils (within reason). This one has a lightly more bready/malty/lagery taste. Very smooth, flavorful, easy drinking.

 

 

 

Bottled 4/4/22. BB date 4/10/23. Refrigerated where I bought it.

Clear gold, with slight white head.

Smell is light sweet toasted grain , bread crust, and some skunk, that has faded as the head dissipated.

Taste is mostly that sweet grain, akin to a toasted corn muffin, & thankfully , more of it than in the aroma. Light bread crust and bitterness show up near finish. None of the skunkiness in the taste. Guessing that may have been in the little bit of gas in the top of the bottle.

Feel is light and smooth, with moderate, very fine carbonation tingle that has a little bite on the end. Drying effect at, & after finish, that doesn't go over the line to a licking-cardboard sensation.

Overall, not bad. Good enough that I'd like to try a fresher specimen .

Clausthaler Original NA Lager. Pours clear golden with a one-finger white head that left some lacing. Nose is malty, taste follows, slightly sweet, faintly bitter. Excellent mouthfeel, overall excellent. One of the better NAs I've had.

Sorry - will never forget this frightening taste experience of heinous skunk metallic compost. It was quite traumatic as I really wanted to like this, but my palate nearly incurred permanent damage before the remainder of a six-pack was safely down the drain.

C: Golden/ Blond. Clear transparent. Little head quickly fades to small band around edge of glass. Nice lacing.

S: Corn and sweet malt

T: Sweet, little malt flavor, no hop, taste like a light beer.

F: light, wet. effervescent.

Overall: Poured at 38.9ºF, 12fl oz bottle, no bottled date, $10:50 for a six-pack,

 

significant head retention. taste is mainly mildly sweet malt with some hop bitterness on the finish. some unusual spicy notes. ingredients mention hop extract and carbon dioxide but all natural.

Wow... First off I picked this up at a supermarket. I normally do not drink NA beer. The recent revision of maximum drink recommendations from 15 to 7 a week from the Canadian Center on Substance abuse and Addiction , has got me thinking. Maybe I should cut back a bit.
Anyway I am pleasantly surprised how good this product tastes.
Brewed on 20.10.2021
Opened on 08.09.2022
Expires on 20.04.2023
No skunky smell or taste....None.
Beers that smell or taste off may have been exposed to strong light, stored at too high a temperature, or are just too old. Reviews should include the relevant dates on the bottle. I don't pretend to be an expert, but I know what I like and dislike. Any skunky smell or taste would rate a beer at zero for me; again this one had none.
Would this replace regular beer for me? NO....but for a nice change, it's not bad. I usually like to have two beers in a row then quit. I could drink two of these easily, not something I coud say for some allegedly "real" beers.

Looks like a lager. Tastes like a poor lager. Great for a non-alcoholic beer. Smell isnt great but taste is good, only lacking the boozy punch normal beer has.

 

This is what a good traditional German pils is supposed to taste like. For an NA it is exceptional. Brewed to German purity standards. I spent several years in Germany, but hadn't tried until now thinking I would be disappointed. Man was I wrong. This is my new go to NA. Not to mention it won world's best style winner at the world beer awards which might make one question the other reviewers. Prost!

Say what you want, I don’t care - this is the BEST NA beer I had by far, hands down!
At least, everything is relative. I have been trying to give up hope and have no expectations whatsoever for non-alc beers because the ones that I had were a disaster (except for non-alc craft beers like the ones I had from Omnipollo, for instance, which were great.)
Now here comes this Clausthaler which has been around forever but for the reasons mentioned above I never thought about giving it a try - until now.
First off, it has an amazing aroma! Full on hops galore, couldn’t quite believe what I’m smelling, had to make sure if it was not just a form of skunk but it wasn’t. Decent aroma hops, great start!
The beer also tastes great, does not let you down. The mouthfeel and carbonation is just like what you would expect from a crisp lager, isn’t overcarbonated like so many other NAs. No foul bitterness, no sickening aftertaste, just full on hops, tastes very much like a freshly hopped lager or pilsner. Tastes very pleasant and refreshing. Loving it.
Now the feel is a different story, this is where the lack of alcohol and the malt base comes into play: there is a sudden drop in the tasting experience, turns into an extremely light something which is somewhat of a shock, but just because the taste is so good that you forget what you are dealing with here. However, as a non-alcoholic beer it is not THAT bad. I had ones that tasted nothing more than bitter water, this is at least just something very thin.
Still, I would say that the whole thing is almost like a session IPA - very generously hopped but on the light side of the tracks. Very sessionable indeed, a session lager/pilser if you will.
So I ranked it 5 overall because for me, this is the most I would expect from a NA lager, it does the trick: has the smell, has the taste, has the feel, has the experience - almost the whole package.
Think this will be my go to NA from now - and I got to tell you that it is a big thing as I’ve been avoiding these beers from the first day I started drinking beer. Good to know that there’s hope in this field too. Thanks, Clausthaler!