Maes Radler Citroen / Citron

33 cl can @ home sounds like the worse idea ever. you take the most awfull lager, and mlx it with lemonjuice... jups, that MUST be delicious ! 2 % abv, at least you wont fuck yourself up, that, is A good thing.. looks like how you’d expect. mix of water and lemonjuice ( much lemonjuice) witch carbonation. soapy , fast fading white foam. my gohd, this looks awfull ! foam is gone completely in less than a minute.. smells only like lemon ... now here’s the deal with maes, it has NO taste, NO thcikness or other good mouthfeel , NO scent, NO complexity. its even more borning than sparkling wazter, thats why i HATE it. so it makes sence i onley get lemon in the smell taste ok i have to admit, its WAY better than expected. mouthfeel is thin, but beerish. lemon in the taste, beery-malty-lemony- in the aftertaste. this actualy is even nice? WTF? it sais maes, i should be hating this.. is it still beer? its a bit like those sweet fruitbeers ( lindemans ! ) . not realy beer ( tastewise) but hey, for this abv, ( and price) , i’d be able to drink it in the summer. Again, kindof shocked by how good ( or not awfull) this is .. little difficult to rate , though...

33 cl. can (which looks smaller than 33 cl.) procured at the local supermarket @ home. Recently Maes complained to the decrease of the quantity of pils consumed in Belgium (one can equate the term pils with pale lager in this context) and attributed this decrease to the increased consumption of amongst other things Cava which has become all the rage in the latter years. In order to counter the decrease Maes has now released what I believe to be the first Radler produced in Belgium and the first pre-package one that I try. They have dubbed this “beer”/Radler an innovation and it is supposed convert wine drinkers in the first place – it is also marketed as a sports drink. This is a move not unlike recent Jupiler Force a concept that I expected to crash and burn but appears to persist anyway… who knows, I suppose that the marketing department of Alken-Maes did their homework thoroughly and such drinks are popular in Germany. I do sort of doubt that they will convert the people who purchase Cava at this instant. Nor do I consider this release and improvement for the Belgian market. Whilst in the States IPA’s continuo growing in appeal we here have to go and release a Radler – sort of disappointing. The States do have the all new Bud nonsense going on as well. This pours a bright eco-looking, radiant lemon yellow, head is instantly gone. Despite containing allegedly 60 % natural fruit juice, nose is all artificial, cleaning agent to me, fake citrus and lime galore, quite enjoyable in a softdrink kind of way, reminds me of discount softdrinks. Taste is pure fake, cheap soda in a good way citrus, lime, lots fake lime and lime peel, touch watered down juice, artificial sweetener, I can pick up a hint of cheap pilsner at first in the back, cheap malts, bit awkward but that goes quickly away. Body is very fizzy and all soda. For me this is all soda and no beer, placing this one in the mid-range of soda’s, slightly above cheap discount fare, no-brand stuff and clearly below Fanta. Hard to tell how to rate it, finished the can, sort of enjoyed, certainly enjoyed it more than the regular awful Maes but for me this has way too little if anything at all in common with beer.