Let's Give Lagers Some Love (2025)

Just seems like a beer mom’s in their 50’s and 60’s would drink. Idk maybe I have that confused with Michelob Ultra.

 

Well, according to their late '70s ad campaign, since Mom "liked" Heineken, it only follows...

 

I have no idea! It is a very decent lager though. Never seen it in cans before. $6.99 for a 4pk. Not bad.

 

Big fan of this one. Cheers!!

 

Maybe your comment was a bit of light hearted humor, at least that’s how I read it.

Then again, when reading to original post, I didn’t get “shaming” of any kind? I read it as nostalgic. Nostalgia tends towards fond memories. And yes, people of different demographics (as a whole) tend to enjoy different things.

Anyway I personally came from a time/place when woman didn’t drink beer at all, because beer was considered vulgar. Imagine my surprise seeing old print and television advertising featuring respectable women, when the current advertising was clearly exploitative.

 

Trying a new beer from Sweden's largest brewery Spendrups under their old brand name Gränges. One of two brands of beer launched this year at 4% abv through the monopoly. The Swedish alcohol monopoly had requested two new beers of a lower abv and this brewery won both tenders. This is the newest beer launched this month. It is an interesting abv level since it is in line with Czech Vycepni 10% beers, and this was also the abv limit for beer in Sweden in the 1920s-1940s when the standard beer in Sweden was very similar to Czech 10% beers (our own version of 3.2 beer). I have often wondered what sort of beers Swedish breweries could produce if they could sell beer at this strenght through grocery stores, and if they would be significantly better than the 2.8% abv and 3.5% abv beers which are currently sold there. So this is a sort of what-if beer to me.

Colorwise it is golden, so it likely has a few percentage points of Munich in the grist alongside Pilsner malt. The aroma is lightly malty with a light hop note. Tastewise the beer is hop forward, in a sense, it has a hop bitterness that is notable but not strong, it must be close to 30 IBUs, slightly below perhaps. It makes the beer very refreshing and also invites another gulp since there is something to grab onto for the tastebuds despite the low abv and lighter body. And there is a hop flavor that I recall from another brand of beer from this brewery, which uses Hallertauer Tradition at quite a high level (in that beer it is used as a whirlpool hop), so I'd wager to guess that it is used also in this beer. It is moderately hop aromatic, offering a fresh herbal hoppiness in the taste I would say. There is also a mild malty breadiness in the aftertaste but the beer is more towards the dry and hoppy end of the spectrum I would say.

All in all I think this beer ticks alot of boxes as a sort of Pilsner-esque 10% plato 4% abv beer, without it tasting like a Czech beer, and I think it's quite a nice one at that. I notice that as I drink a second can of it the lightness of the body is less apparent, it feels more more balanced, while the hops become more apparent, which I think points to the drinkability of this style of beer. I think this type of beer is well suited for drinking in volume where you acclimate to the body of the beer and the beer starts to taste more developed the more you drink of it. I may still prefer Export strenght beers of higher gravities, but viewed as a separate style, a lower gravity pilsner type beer, I think this beer has something to offer to the drinker.

 

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Here we go....

 

Well, volumewise around 20% of the beer consumed today is lower abv beer (grocery store beer, maximum 3.5% abv), whereas 80% of consumption is made up of "strong beer". So even though the lower abv beers are prevalent in the sense of them being available in every grocery store in Sweden, these days the standard beer consumed is a beer of a normal abv level, and in a way of a higher abv than in other countries (the standard Swedish beer being around 5.2%-5.3% abv compared to the standard 4.6-4.7% abv pilsner/beer of Norway, Denmark and Finland today). It is true however that ever since WW2 up until the most recent decades Swedish beer consumption was heavily weighted towards the low abv beers for legislative and tax related reasons (see for example this thread where I delved further into this topic).

 

Not a bad winter lager from Zero Gravity

 

Side Project - Oma. Cheers!

 

One of my personal favorites. Cheers!!

 

I was in Vermont for two weeks in November, but I missed this.

 

Schell's Snowstorm



A fitting beer after shoveling during the midst of our latest snowstorm.

As the description says on the can, it is a toasty-malty beer, but it has a firm bitterness. I would prefer it if it were a bit less bitter, but it's still a nice dark lager.

 

Another fitting beer for today/tonight.