Doreleï (65cl)

Bitter vegetable aroma. A nasty bitterness in fact. Sweet cola flavor, combined with a hint of rubber and too long cooked Brussel sprouts. Leave it, order a coke instead (or a decent beer).

65cl bottle as Fischer Doreleï from Carrefour Market Nice Bas Cimiez, Nice, France. Almost big, egg-white, quick gone head. Colour is dark amber, clear. Aroma is sweet malty, bit lemonade, citrus touch, bit honey. Taste is medium malty base, bit honey, elderflower, caramel, bit citrus lemonade, medium carbonation, something like strong Radler not a real beer.

One of the staple beers of the old Brasserie du Pêcheur, now in the hands of Heineken; comes from a rather stylish bottle, doubtlessly to help justify the price. From some supermarket in de Dordogne region. Moussy, off-white, closed, frothy, papery lacing head, cristal clear orange blonde robe with salmon pinkish tinge. Weird and artificial aroma of rosewater, sugar syrup, 7Up lemonade, ‘cooked cloth’ pasteurization, violets, cherry essence, honey, orange water, sweetbread, carrots from a can. Very sweet and sugary onset, cloying and unpleasant with a perfumey note of orange water; canned pear and raspberry sweet notes as well, fizzy carbonation. Slick, minerally middle with a near-lemonade-like sweetness sticking to a cereally, thinly caramelly malt body, hardly any (hop or other) bitterness in the finish, with the sugariness – by this time fortunately in a rather diluted form – still dominating. Very sugary ‘ambrée’, almost Radler-like, probably intended to be as accessible as possible to consumers who have never tasted ‘real’ beer before – ghastly and way worse than expected, though this brand never brought me any joy ever since I first encountered it.

Clear amber red colour, dissipating white head. Sweet aroma, banana, candy. Sweet flavour, candy. Sweet finish. Bit disappointing, really, was expecting something different.
(draught @ a local bar, Honfleur, France)

Bottle at New Years party. Light amber with small off white head. Lots of skunky notes, sweet cardboard, cinnamon, cloves, sugar. Quite sweet and light bitter. Medium bodied. The spices are the only good thing about this.