Lower ABV beers, we have all been trying them because the governments brain fart of an idea. Fullers Mighty Atom was the best of the bunch, well until now.
Saturday night after a long day wandering around Kew, we came across The Cats Back in Wandsworth, only the second Harvey’s Pub I know of in London and even better they stocked a majority of Harvey’s bottled beers as well as having four pumps of differing beers including the mild, two seasonal (one for the Olympics and the monthly one) beers and the other was Sussex Best.
Now I don’t know about you but I didn’t know that Harvey’s did not only one under 1% abv beer but two and also several 2.8% abv beers. Their 1% beers are brewed normally then before bottled the alcohol is removed, I don’t know if people view this as a cop out but for me this makes sense they end up with a balanced beer and no/low alcohol.
Bill Brewer for me is the better of the under 1% beers, it is a dark beer which has more taste than some higher percentage beers I have tried, full of chocolately liquorice flavours but a tad flat maybe a (shock horror) gentle carbonation would lift it a bit more but as the flavour coats your mouth it has a better mouth feel than you would think. Considering the heat of the afternoon it also was a refreshing drop.
John the Hop the other small beer was more like the others I have tried on the 2.8% level, pale and hoppy looking but instead of having the too bitter edge and over carbonation of the other this was actually quite sweet but not in a cloying sense. Quite a clean sweet note to the beer with a gentle hoppiness to it, better than most of the 2.8ers I have tried from other breweries but Bill wins the day between the two mainly because I prefer my dark beers.
Shouldn't that be <1%?
ReplyDeleteDrinking low alcohol beers is like eating a chip butty without the chips.
ReplyDeleteCan be if there is no taste, but this was more like a chip butty without the butter, chips and bread are still there but there's something missing that isn't so apparent unless of course you read the label. :)
DeleteEd, yep I'll correct that. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd corrected again thanks to blooming apple problems wanting to pop in calculations... Grrrrr
DeleteI meant to add that when I first saw this post, I misread the title as "Harveys - Kill the Brewer", which I thought was taking beer criticism a bit far.
ReplyDeleteThankfully I don't think I have ever had a beer that has made me think that.... although I have been in places where killing the celler man would be sweet justice.
ReplyDelete