It’s finally warm out. Not quite hot, but sunny and sufficiently temperate that a t-shirt and jeans are suitable attire. And I just got back from a walk, now ensconcing myself in my overly warm, not-yet-air-conditioned office.
If there is a time when Brick Brewing’s new lemonade-flavoured Radlermass should be at its finest, this is it.
From the 473 ml can, this 4.8% alcohol — high for a traditional radler, which is a German blend of lager and lemonade typically associated with summer and bicycling — beer pours a medium gold with a fluffy and surprisingly long-lasting white head. (Citrus usually kills the foam on beer, and fast!) The nose reminds me of a Sprite-esque mix of lemon and sugar, with nary a hint of hop within nose-shot.
The flavour, however, is much more enjoyable than Sprite, at least for this non-soda swilling scribe. (Enough with the alliterations already – ed.) Lemon and sweet malt hit the palate first, with the lemon hanging around as the flavour dries slightly to first a more cereally character, then a mildly cloying finish. Overall, there’s not much to this in terms of complex flavours, but I suspect that was also precisely the intent. This is a simple, sweet, soda-like beer meant for the Bud Lite Lime crowd, or at least those members of that crowd worldly enough to understand the German radler tradition.
Me, if I’m going to quench my thirst, I’d much prefer something dry and hoppy. Like another fine Teutonic tradition: northern German pilsner.