AF Beer Club Virtual Beer Festival 2021 - Day 1

 Af beer club in association with wise Bartender have put together a 3 day Virtual Beer Festival.  Consisting of a box of 12 beers to drink along with live videos with the brewers behind the beers.  

Day 1 - Friday 09/04/2021

MaltGarden - Free Sunset

Catchup on the session here

1st up we have a beer and brewery that is new to me the Maltgarden Free Sunset. 0.5%  

This is a fruit Beer from Polish brewers Maltgarden.  Described as Pina Colada meets IPA.  So I will be expecting lots of pineapple and coconut flavours coming through. 

This session was hosted by the man behind af beer club Robin.  and His guest is the brewer Lukasz.

Maltgarden currently use 2 different contract breweries with each brewing different styles of beer.  They are based in Kolobrzeg in Poland.  They Started off in March 2019 mainly brewing Imperial Stouts and porters and have since expanded their range to include a variety of Styles.  Last year they brewed they started brewing their 1st Non Alcoholic beer which is the free Sunset that we are drinking Tonight.  This is currently their only non alcoholic beer but they hope to expand the range over the coming year and introduce another non alcoholic fruit beer this time using forest fruits and also a Non alcoholic IPA.

They hope to open their own Beach side Bar in may in Kolobrzeg and aim to have their own brewery within 2 years.  

The free Sunset beer is brewed using a low alcohol yeast and after fermentation they add in Mango, Passion fruit, lime and coconut to give it it's fruity flavour.  The beer is then pasteurised before being bottled.  

An interesting fact mentioned by Lukasz during the chat is that the 15% of beer drank in Poland is alcohol free although although this tends to come from major breweries rather than smaller ones. 

My Thoughts

Looks - This beer pours with a cloudy dark orange colour.  With very little head.

Aroma  - On the Pour there is a very strong smell of Pineapple and coconut  once in the glass you also get a bit of mango coming through.

Taste -  There is a very strong Taste of Coconut, mango and pineapple coming through.  Lovely tropical flavours and would be a great drink on a nice sunny day.  It very much resembles a pina colada drink and also quite a lot like a Solero Ice Cream.  My only negative is that like many other fruit beers the taste is very different to a traditional Beer and leans more towards a Fruit juice or smoothie.

I would definitely have this beer again but would leave it for a nice sunny day at the beach or in a garden next time it is very much a summers day Drink.

Beer 2 - Mikkeller Limbo series Riesling 

If you missed it you can watch again here 

The 2nd Beer of the evening comes from Mikkeller and thier Limbo series.  This is another new one to me but have enjoyed many other Mikkeller Af beers including the Limbo Raspberry.  The Talk was hosted by Zoe Andrews from Reading Camra and had 2 guests from Mikkeler  Thom and Joe.  

Thom and joe explained that the limbo series is a close cousin of their Henry and his science Beer.  They use a special style of yeast that they have created which ferments the sugar but doesn't produce alcohol Allowing the to use a traditional brewing process and not have to extract anything from the beer.    They went on to explain how with their alcohol free beers they are not trying to create beers equivalent to alcohol versions but to create unique beers that stand up on their own and show what can be done with different styles and alcohol free.  The limbo series takes this special yeast and combines it with different fruits to produce different flavours of beers the Riesling Grapes for this one are grown on their own Vineyard In Germany.

They now have quite a large range of Alcohol free beers but the idea to create them came along from their running club and wanting something they can drink in the evening and then still be able to wake nice and fresh in the morning and do a 5k run without the dreaded hangover.  

Mikkeler like to have a big a range as possible with different styles and strengths of beer to suit everyone.  They currently have 2 bars in London in Collaboration with Rick Astley.   They are hoping to get their Drinkin in the Sun AF beer on tap in the near future.

My thoughts

Looks - This pours with quite a cloudy straw coloured look to it.

Aroma - I find this has quite a sour fruity aroma to it

Taste - Initially I found this to have quite a sharp fruity flavour to it.  After the first few sips as I got used to it more it had a nice pleasant grape taste to it with a bit of a zing.

I enjoyed this beer and is another one I would have again.  Once again I feel it's suited to summer drinking and think I would really enjoy on a warm summer day.  However don't think I could drink too many as did find it left my mouth a bit dry

Beer 3 - Tiny Rebel Rhubarb and Custard Sour Non-Alcoholic

If you missed the session it's available to watch here

The last beer of the night comes to us from Tiny Rebel in the form of thier rhubarb and custard Sour.  I'm a big fan of this brewery and many of thier beers and really enjoyed this beer and the others in thier recent 4 pack of Non Alcoholic beers.

The chat was hosted by matt who runs the instagram account Guiltfreepints and his Guest was one of the co-founders of Tiny Rebel Gaz.

A couple of years back Tiny rebel came out with their Rhubarb and custard sour and recently brought it back to their range.  Then in January alongside 3 other alcohol free beers (Space Cake, Clwb Tropica NA and Party Hard) they brought us the alcohol free version.  Tiny rebel like to challenge themselves and bring wacky flavours together in their beers.   After all their Motto is "Never Just Make Vanilla Ice Cream" they apply the same to their beers.   For their alcohol free box in January though they decided to play it fairly safe and stick to pretty standard beers or in the case of this sour a tried and tested flavour.  That said though due to Alcohol free beers being one of the hardest styles to do as you don't have the alcohol to hide behind these took some while to bring to the market and they faced many obstacles including Secondary carbonation inside some cans of the clwb Tropicana meaning recipes needed to be tweaked.  Like with their other beers Tiny Rebel hope to experiment more with the flavours in Non alcoholic beers and I look forward to seeing what they produce for us.  

Gaz also talked about plans to bring the Non Alcoholic beers onto tap, they are currently running at full capacity on thier lines due to trying to get supply up for the on trade but hope to bring it on tap soon and in the mean time thier bars will be stocking other Non alcoholic beers hopefully On tap as well as in bottle form.

My Thoughts

Looks -  This is highly carbonated very pale with a slight pink tint to it.  A lot lighter in colour than the alcoholic version

Aroma -  There is a subtle smell of Rhubarb and Custard Sweets.

Taste - This has a very sweet taste and almost exactly like the Rhubarb and Custard Sweets kind of takes me back to my childhood.

An enjoyable drink nice sweet taste and manages to achieve exactly what they set out to with the tastes and smells of the sweets.  Not a drink I'd rush out to have again but I would have again if I came across it.

Thanks to everyone involved in all the sessions especially the hosts and of course the brewers.  Look forward to Day 2 Tomorrow and some more Beers