Arcobräu Winterbier | Arcobräu Gräfliches Brauhaus

3.68/5  rDev +13.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

3.19/5  rDev -1.5%
look: 2.75 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.25

Bright golden color with a thin head with short retention.
Aroma with notes of herbal and floral hops, bread malt and Lager yeast.
Flavor with notes of grassy and floral hops, bread malt, grains, tea leaves and lemon drops. Dry and bitter aftertaste.
Light towards medium body with appropriate carbonation.
Decent slightly maltier Lager, but still balanced with floral and herbal hops. Assertive with good grasp of its flavors.

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3.71/5  rDev +14.5%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75

3.25/5  rDev +0.3%

3.5/5  rDev +8%

3.25/5  rDev +0.3%

2.94/5  rDev -9.3%
look: 3.25 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3

A 500ml bottle with a BB of Oct 2013. Picked up a little while back from Aldi. Spring is chasing hard on Winter's heels, so I'd better drink this while the weather is still cold....

Poured into a straight pint glass. A clear golden colour with medium carbonation and faint floating sediment. Forms a large head of creamy white foam that lasts for a few minutes before subsiding. Aroma of grainy malt with hints of overcooked veggies and corn. Mildly sulphurous, with very faint stewed hop notes in the background as it warms. Average.

Tastes of light malt with a mild bitter finish. Notes of mild grain, stewed veg, corn and faint hops. A residual sweetness, accompanied by a rather harsh background flavour and a whiff of solvent. Quite bitter upon swallowing; slightly herbal in character. Mouthfeel is smooth, with good body, but rather too dry and undercarbonated. Pretty astringent, with an aftertaste of acrid stewed leaves and faint grain.

Bleh - not a very inspiring beer. It seems like a typical lager; I can't discern anything particularly 'wintery' about it that marks it out. Neither aroma or flavour are all that nice - lacklustre with some unpleasant off-notes. In short, not very good and not worth your money. Give it a miss.

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3.5/5  rDev +8%

3/5  rDev -7.4%

3.47/5  rDev +7.1%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Aldi UK stocking this: 500ml bottle, best before 20 Sept 2013, poured @ home into a UK pint sleeve on 06 Nov 2012.

Looks OK, usual Pilsner golden colour, clean, clear, etc, etc, the head vanished before it arrived, I hate that! Gets an average score because my lips might have had some Cambozola remains on them and that would have killed the head.

Nose is hop, grain and hay with some bready malts arriving as the beer warmed a little.

The taste was sweeter than the aroma suggested with the malts pushing the hop content towards the rear, the aftertaste and finish were semi-sweet too, no hop bitterness or dryness, so maybe this has some Christmassy notes after all. I wondered at first about the 'Winterbier' handle. Still couldn't detect any spice or 'winterness' in the brew, but it was tasty and the body wasn't 'lager-light'.

I actually enjoyed this: for a cheap supermarket brew it knocks the socks off most of the 'designer' Lagers/Pilsners and I'll be getting some more for my guests over the festive season.

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