What could possibly justify such a high price for something with the same provenance as Kronenbourg? Well, the beer in question is Kasteel Cru and its unique selling point / gimmick / device for separating money from fools is that it's made using champagne yeast.
On opening there was an immediate lightstruck whiff, no doubt resulting from the green glass. It pours extremely pale and thin looking, with lots of bubbles. This made me think immediately of fellow Alsatian Fischer, a beer I enjoy a lot. On the first sip there is indeed a similar sharp gassy dryness, but there's more as well. It really does carry the fruity, toasty flavours of champagne and the chardonnay grape (when fermented) in particular.
It's an interesting experiment, and a genuinely pleasant beer. It's still overpriced though: nice, but not that nice.
I know this beer gets slated, but I quite liked it when I had it. Not enough to go out of my way to get it again, but it was a pleasant surprise.
ReplyDeleteSo it does. Just as well I don't read beer reviews in advance. The mighty Pete liked it though.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately champagne yeast cost the same as other dry beer yeast and I suspect it added little flavor. Now if they had used the champagne method (méthode champenoise) that would have been something
ReplyDeleteIs DeuS made that way? I think Méthode Moa is.
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