• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Steady Drinker

Discover the best low-alcohol and alcohol-free beers and lagers (under 0.5% ABV)

  • Home
  • Start here
  • Best beers
  • Articles
  • About
  • Contact
  • Show Search
Hide Search
You are here: Home / All reviews / Lagers / Furstenberg “Alkoholfrei” review – low-alcohol (0.5%) lager

Furstenberg “Alkoholfrei” review – low-alcohol (0.5%) lager

By Tom Hallett on September 5, 2018

  • Share
  • Tweet

Furstenberg “Alkoholfrei” is a low-alcohol (0.5%) lager from Germany’s Black Forest region. Get tasting notes, plus info on stockists, calories and ingredients, in this review.

One of the benefits of sampling the many alcohol-free beers that come out of Germany is discovering new breweries. Well, old breweries that are new to me.

One brewery I’d never heard of before is Furstenberg, based in the Black Forest. I’m a bit late to the party though – previously owned by the noble German family of the same name, its been brewing beer since 1283.

These days it’s 49% owned by beer giants Heineken, but operates independently. Hence why it still sources its barley locally. And there was me thinking that the Black Forest was all cherry trees, creameries and cocoa plantations (hey, I grew up in the 80s on Black Forest Gateaux).

  • New to Steady Drinker? Start here…
  • My top alcohol-free beers and lagers
  • Why you can’t get drunk on 0.5% alcohol-free beer
  • 10 brilliant benefits of non-alcoholic beer

Furstenberg first brewed lager in the late 1800s, and – as with most things German – was well ahead of its time when it produced its first alcohol-free lager in 1972.

Furstenberg bottle cap

Like most “non-alcoholic” German beers, “Alkoholfrei” comes in at 0.5% ABV meeting the European and US definition of alcohol-free. Rather than using a lazy yeast that doesn’t produce much alcohol, the brewery removes the alcohol after fermentation.

From the looks my bottle, Furstenberg reuse their bottles. Why don’t more breweries do this I wonder?

Anyway, out of the bottle, Alkoholfrei pours an amber colour with a decent head of foam, which hangs around a little as you drink it.

Furstenberg bottle
Furstenberg bottle and glass

On the nose, the malt and yeast combines to create a sweet, clean, biscuity smell that has a whisper of pepper. It’s a varied aroma for a pilsner-style lager.

The mouthfeel is gorgeous – tingly, not fizzy; creamy, not syrupy. I’ve no idea how it compares to Furstenberg’s higher-strength beers, but it’s a joy to drink. The creaminess stopped me downing it too quickly and made it feel like it would go down nicely while munching on a meal.

The cleanliness from the aroma continues in the taste, but it’s less biscuity. As expected for a German lager, it’s crisp despite the creaminess in the mouth. There’s hardly any bitterness until swallowing. Then the bitterness continues a little in the aftertaste. It eases off as you make you’re way through the bottle.

Verdict

Furstenberg have come up with a lovely little low-alcohol number with their “Alkoholfrei” lager. The aroma and flavour are decent, yet not exceptional. But it’s the creamy mouthfeel that steals the show.

If you’re a lager fan and bored of the alcohol-free lagers available in the shops, this one’s worth seeking out.

Key info – Furstenberg Alkoholfrei

  • Name: Alkoholfrei
  • Brewery: Furstenberg
  • Style: pale lager
  • Alcohol content: 0.5%
  • Calories: 55 (per 500ml)
  • Ingredients: water, barley malt, hops, hop extract, carbonic acid, yeast
  • Country: Germany
  • Dispense: bottle (500ml)
  • Stockists: Wise Bartender*

Related posts:

The Hop Foundry (Aldi) "Low Down" review - low-alcohol (0.5%) IPL
Rothaus "Non-Alcoholic Tannenzäpfle" review (0.4%) low-alcohol pilsner
Nirvana "Lager" review - low-alcohol (0.3%) helles beer

"Alkoholfrei" (0.5%) by Furstenberg

Furstenberg bottle cap
6.9

Aroma

6.5/10

Mouthfeel

8.3/10

Flavour

6.0/10

Pros

  • Creamy mouthfeel
  • Varied aroma and flavour

Cons

  • None
  • Share
  • Tweet

Disclosures

*If you buy something after you visit links marked with *, I might receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

†Reviews marked with † feature beers I didn't pay for (usually because the producers gave them to me for free). My aim is to review these beers the same as beers I've paid for but you may want to bear this in mind when reading the review.

Find out more on my disclosures page.

About Tom Hallett

New(ish) dad, slow runner and Border Terrier owner (or is it the other way round?) on a mission to find the world's best low-alcohol and alcohol-free beers.

Primary Sidebar

About Steady Drinker

Hello, I'm Tom and this is Steady Drinker – a website and blog that helps you discover great low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beers and lagers (under 0.5% ABV) so you can cut down your alcohol intake. Read More…

Get something nice by email

Sign up to get reviews, articles, offers and discounts to your inbox.

(I'll only use your details to send you emails and I won't share your data with anyone else.)

Recent Posts

  • Uiltje “Superb-Owl” review – low-alcohol (0.2%) India pale ale
  • The best non-alcoholic beers and alcohol-free lagers in 2023
  • Butcombe “Goram IPA Zero” review – low-alcohol (0.5%) India pale ale†
  • Insel “Swimmer’s” review – low-alcohol (0.5%) saison
  • Divine Brewing “Polaris” review – low-alcohol (0.5%) porter

Copyright © 2023 | Privacy policy | Disclaimer | Disclosures