by Andrew H Brown

Created on: January 01, 2011

Since I'll be off on my travels again soon, I've decided to push on and write up some of the reviews from a fairly recent holiday in Germany that have been gathering dust. With Germany being Germany, a lot of these reviews concern beer...pure beer that is.

One of the first brews I had while I was there last September was a little number called Leikeim Premium.

The Leikeim Brewery is privately owned and in fact  has been in the very same family for four generations, since way back 1887. Leikeim Premium is most definitely its flagship ale and the bottle comes complete with "its famous, exclusive Leikeim flip-top bottle", (I think Grolsch and Fischer, to name but two, might dispute the exclusivity of the flip-top, but never mind, who am I to argue). The brewery reckons that, together with its subsidiary Altenburger Brewery, it's "the second largest in Germany in terms of beer specialties in flip-top bottles."
Since the flip-tops are 'exclusive', I wonder why they're only the second largest?
They brew a few other ales, but Leikeim Premium accounts for almost 90% of their production.

This beer pours a very pale, pale yellow with an almost greenish tinge  which makes it very insipid looking. It forms a decent white head of tight foam but this soon shrinks to a sparse film which leaves very little, if any, lace on the glass.

Initially, it has a deep malt aroma but this soon makes way for a more hop-orientated bouquet. It's grassy, herbal and floral with a faint citric note hanging around. Having said that, it's all fairly subtle and nothing really comes out and smacks you on the nose.

It has quite a crisp mouth feel and is light bodied with only moderate carbonation. The taste is again dominated by hops with a sharp bite up front, and a light citric tang. There's some smooth caramel malt midway which helps to balance, but the hops soon dominate again with lots of herbal and grassy tones. It finishes slightly dry and leaves a zesty, floral aftertaste.

The Verdict

At 4.9% ABV, I thought this was a very refreshing beer. Fresh and zesty, crisp and clean, it makes a wonderful thirst quencher. It was possibly a little too gassy, and maybe not the most complex beer in the world, but a decent enough pilsner. It's maybe not the most attractive looking of beers, but I'd sooner have a beer that looked bad and tasted good then the other way around. summing up, I'd describe this as a little above average but not really quite premium.

Would I drink it again? - Leikeim going to tell you?

 

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