Premium Fresh

I am very excited to introduce a new thing to my blog today, a guest review! A friend of mine (Bettiboots) has discovered a rich cache of non-alcoholic beverages that also try to be ales. After my own foray there through Brewdog's Nanny State (click here), still a staple where I can't risk actually having alcohol, I naturally jumped at the chance to have a review of some other examples of this most difficult of crafts to get right where ale is concerned. The first of these reviews is of Premium Fresh from Warsteiner and I shall confess that I was looking forward to seeing what would transpire.

I even got a photo to put up. Are you as excited as I am? Well, then, all you have to do is click below to find out more!



Bettiboots:
My key focus for a non-alcoholic beer is that it should in no way taste 'apologetic'. Water is freely available from my home tap, so I am looking for consistent flavour throughout and for it to give me all the feeling and experience of drinking a beer but without the need for a nap or 'accidentally' falling into a bag of pork scratchings. Joyfully, Warsteiner Premium Fresh fulfills these criteria. A Pilsner-style beer, I should have fully expected the fizz (which is sometimes lacking in non-alcoholic beers) on opening. If poured recklessly, you can find yourself with the sort of head the proverbial flake can be stuck in; let this be a lesson about trying to hold an encouraging conversation about Mario Kart with your six-year-old who is in another room when you should be concentrating on more important things. Like your beer.

On the first sip, it is undeniable that this is a Pilsner-style, hitting all the notes that you'd expect. It has that straw yellow colour and there is the crisp, thirst-quenching note that makes these lagers so suitable for activities such as mowing the lawn. Although it does have those intitial, slightly metallic notes that you get at the start of many Pilsners, it is not overpowering and leads to a hoppier flavour that lingers. the internet informs me that it is brewed in the normal way as the Premium Verum but then has the alcohol extracted (by Science!) and this method has left you with all-round, well-flavoured and pleasantly hoppy beer. Certainly a good drink for Spring; ideal to take along with you to the garden when you need to get the lawnmower out, or good to accompany a cheeky takeaway curry.