Light motif

Low-strength German oddities isn't a theme I've tackled on here previously, as far as I can recall, but I do like to mix things up, so here goes.

Radler isn't really odd, but then it doesn't count as beer either, in Germany. This one is Grevensteiner Naturtrübes Ur-Radler, 48% lager, 52% lemonade at 2.5% ABV. I expected it to be hazy and yellow because radlers are, but it immediately confounded me by being a dark bronze shade and almost completely clear, at least for the initial part of the pour. Perhaps I should have given the bottle a rattle before opening. It smells of dried lemon and herbs, like the sort of mixture you might use to season fish in Mediterranean cookery. The flavour is very sweet, but not in the usual radler way. It's cleaner and smoother, with a dry and tannic lemon tea quality. There's even a mildly herbal hop bite. This doesn't taste like some fizzy pop topped up with lager. It's altogether classier, refined and refreshing. The sugar doesn't hang around on the palate, nor lump together in the stomach. A nice twist from Team Veltins.

But if even that is too rich for your blood alcohol, Schlenkerla has an offering, which I think is new, at 1.2% ABV. Hansla is the same dark brown colour as the rest of the stable, and has a familiar aroma of the burnt crunchy bits around the edge of a roast ham. They haven't compensated in the texture and it's quite watery as a result. This means there isn't the same meaty richness as with the classic Märzen, though it calls its intense flavour to mind. Instead there's a dry acridity, like real wood smoke at its most stinging and inconvenient. That works well in the high-ABV end of the series -- the urbock and oak doppelbock -- but is an encumbrance here. The aftertaste is a lingering raw beechwood that's a little out of character for the brand. Yes, it's thirst-quenching, despite the smoke, but so thin that it doesn't really feel like beer, more a smoked savoury soft drink: I could be persuaded it's a variant of kombucha or kvass or the like. Interesting as an experiment, but not something I would make a habit of, even if I found myself labouring in the fields around Bamberg. For more on the historical background of what's going on here, see Andreas's blog.

I like when German beer shows its reputation as staid and samey to be inaccurate. There's always more to explore even when you think you've seen and tasted it all.