Erdinger - Alcohol Free - less than 0.5%

Erdinger Alkoholfrei is marketed as a post-sports recovery drink, with the health benefits of it’s ingredients highlighted prominently on the bottle. Despite it being a non-alcoholic wheat beer, the product is labelled as a ‘refreshing isotonic drink’ – but this is certainly no Lucozade or Red Bull!

Pouring from the generous 500ml bottle into a glass the beer is a golden amber colour – not cloudy as usual for a wheat beer. We also get a tall foamy head, and for once the head lasts more than a few seconds. In fact it’ll probably be your faithful companion for the entire drinking session! This is certainly a first for me in my experience with non-alcoholic beers.

On the nose there are aromas of wheat and banana, similar to other weissbiers, but also a citrus note. The presence of banana continues on when we taste the beer, but it is certainly less pronounced than in a standard wheat beer. In fact I’d say the taste has more in common with a Pilsner. It’s good and malty and the carbonation saves it from being too thin.