• 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 / Wheat beer / Franziskaner “Alkoholfrei” review – low-alcohol (0.5%) wheat beer

Franziskaner “Alkoholfrei” review – low-alcohol (0.5%) wheat beer

By Tom Hallett on May 13, 2018

  • Share
  • Tweet

Franziskaner “Alkoholfrei” is a 0.5% ABV version of the German brewer’s famous wheat beer. Get tasting notes, nutritional info and find out where to buy it in this review.

Monastic breweries – especially the 11 Trappist breweries of Belgium, Holland, Austria, Italy and the USA – have a great reputation.

Stick a picture on a monk on a bottle of beer then and you’re all set.

Franziskaner Alkoholfrei bottle close up

To be fair to Franziskaner, there’s some history behind its logo, which has featured an image of a friar drinking from a stein since 1909. One of the world’s oldest breweries, the first mention of Franziskaner was in 1363. It’s named after the Franciscan monastery, which the brewery was apparently neighbours with when it was first established.

The current set up isn’t quite so romantic, despite the old-school branding, with global beer giant AB-InBev owning the brewery since 2004.

  • 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

Franziskaner started brewing wheat beer in 1964, but didn’t sell it beyond Bavaria until the mid 1980s. This “Alkoholfrei” version won a Gold Medal in the alcohol-free wheat beer category in the 2015 World Beer Awards. It launched in the UK in 2017.

This beer looks exquisite when poured. It’s a hazy orange-straw-colour, with a delectable layer of froth on top. There’s a lot of that wheat malt in the bread-like aroma, which has a little sourness that gets the taste buds going.

As indicated by the frothy head, this isn’t a flat beer. But it’s not over-carbonated either. There’s a creamy mouthfeel, which doesn’t let slip that this is low in alcohol.

Franziskaner Alkoholfrei bottle close up

The bubbles help bring out the flavour, which is led by sweet malt backed up by touches of banana, clove and biscuit. The sourness continues in the flavour too, which encourages big gulps. This is balanced by a little fruity bitterness.

Verdict

While the taste and aroma of this beer isn’t striking, I quietly enjoyed it. As non-alcoholic wheat beers go, it’s a great example. And it’s easy to get hold of too – you’ll find it in quite a few major supermarkets as well as online.

Key info – Franziskaner Alkoholfrei

  • Name: Alkoholfrei
  • Brewery: Franziskaner
  • Style: wheat beer
  • Alcohol content: 0.5%
  • Calories: 105 (per 500ml)
  • Ingredients: water, malt, yeast, hops
  • Country: Germany
  • Dispense: bottle (500ml)
  • Available from: Amazon*, Booze Free and many major supermarkets

Related posts:

Hoegaarden "0.0" review - alcohol-free (0%) wheat beer
Lidl Perlenbacher "Patronus" review - alcohol-free wheat beer
Krombacher "Weizen Alkoholfrei" review - low-alcohol (0.5%) wheat beer

"Alkoholfrei" (0.5%) by Franziskaner

Franziskaner Alkoholfrei bottle close up
6.4

Aroma

5.5/10

Mouthfeel

8.2/10

Flavour

5.5/10

Pros

  • Widely available
  • Looks delicious

Cons

  • High in calories for a non-alcoholic beer
Buy now on Amazon*
Buy now at the Beer Hawk*
  • 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