OK Hivers while perusing the Sainsbury’s beer shelves this morning I came across something very different a French Amber Ale. I’ve drunk French beers in the past but they have tended to be more down the road of pilsner lagers such as Kronenbourg finding an Amber Ale tweaked my curiosity.
It seems to a brewed under licence in France for Sainsbury’s import and at 7%ABV I certainly won’t be driving after that for sure. To be honest the strength of continental beers are a bit of a problem for us Brits where beer strengths tend to be around 3.5 to 5%ABV many continental beers such as Duval can be double that at around 8%ABV and speaking from experience we still sink pints at the same speed and suddenly the floor comes up to hit us.
So what is this beer like? For a start it’s a full 0.75 litre so more like a bottle of wine with a wired on champagne cork to keep the devil inside and not the more usual crown beer bottle cap.
As it’s a bit stronger the my usual beer I’m going to try and drink it a bit slower and from smaller glasses which may help. I might even try a shandy😃.
So Hivers it’s nice chilled and quite citrusy but a very pleasing beer but the strength is deceiving. It holds it’d head very well right to the bottom of the glass. For a longer drink it does make a good shandy bearing in mind that pint will still be around 4%ABV unless you really go overboard with the lemonade.
