Hollbeer Bière D’Alsace
Brasserie Hollbeer et Magasin

500ml bottle purchased from the brewery in Riquewihr France. Date of 22 Oct, 2011, 6.5% ABV.

Pours a hazy burnt orange color. Fizzy, tan head falls to nothing leaving no real lace to speak of. Looks like murky tea right now.

Aroma is sweet with a prominent buttery tone, reminiscent of butterscotch. Malts in the nose but no real hops.

Taste mimics the aroma with sweet malts and a butterscotch flavor. Ends crisp and sweet fading out to a very mild hop bitterness.

Medium bodied on the tongue and velvety. Rather low carbonation.

Not bad. Tastes a bit like their blonde but not quite as sweet and buttery.

This beer comes from Riquewihr, one of the most touristy places in Alsace. It’s a place famous for its wine, but Gilbert Holl decided to open a distillery, and later on a brewery, quite small, in which he brews batches of 150 liters (that’s on the label).
I kind of had to fight to get head, but finally got it, thin but dense on a nicely hazy glittering orange color body. The smell was slightly grainy, fresh, and quite citric with notes of yeast. The taste was enjoyable, although not exceptional: fruity, with notes of apricot and not ripe yet peaches, it’s quite wheaty and citric, lemony. The label states that three malts are used, so I guess something close to wheat might be included. Some clementines, with their sweetness, but also their bitterness and tartness, less the chewiness. You get the same feeling with grapefruit too. I couldn’t really feel the 7% at first, but it’s coming now. Mouthfeel is decent, quite enjoyable and rich enough, maybe a bit too still, it’s almost like having a dead beer in the mouth: it’s soft, but lacking some thickness or chewiness, although dead flesh is probably chewy. This beer went down really fast.