Lowlander 0.00% Wit

Lowlander Beer Co are a Dutch beer producer based in Amsterdam. They were founded by Frederik Kampman, a Dutch brewer who spent some time working in the UK at a gin distillers. During this time living and working in London he became enthralled by the usage of botanicals in both the gin he was helping to distill and the cocktails he was drinking on his nights out. If the flavours from herbs, fruits and spices can be used with aplomb in these drinks, he reasoned that they could have a place in lifting the characters of traditional beers too. And thus in 2016 the company, and it’s slogan ‘Brewed with Botanicals’ was born.

As the Netherlands had a big hand in the spice trade of the 1600s onwards, the country has used botanicals in their beer before. The style that people will mainly think of when you mention herbs and spices in beer will be wheat beer, which regularly features aromatics such as coriander and cloves in their flavour profile, and of course citrus. Lowlander has opted to go down this route with their non-alcoholic beer, and have chosen to brew it with reclaimed citrus peels. Reclaimed peels you say? Imagine the amount of freshly squeezed orange juice that is made every day, and now imagine how much peel is left over from this process. Lowlander have teamed up with a charity named PeelPioneers to reuse this otherwise lost resource. I’m certainly not averse to a wedge of orange or lemon in my wheat beer, let’s see what these Dutch brewers have come up with to tickle our tastebuds.

The beer pours a pale straw colour with very little haze and some lively-looking carbonation. We get a thin head that quickly recedes to a spattering of foam on the top of the liquid. Inhaling, we get kicked in the face with a citrus boot. They’ve certainly made use of the aforementioned citrus peel here! I’d say the predominant aroma is of slightly sour grapefruit juice, similar to those juices you have at a breakfast buffet in a hotel. Not unpleasant, but nothing on the nose to identify this as a beer at all.

On tasting we get sweetness and juicy citrus, with a touch of sharp bitterness. I get no bready wheat, malt or hops at all, it really is like drinking a zesty orange, lemon and lime juice drink. The beer finishes with a lemon bitterness and an orange sweetness.

This may be called a beer, but it tastes nothing like one in my opinion. A very refreshing fruity soft drink for sure, but certainly nothing to suggest it’s a wheat beer except maybe it’s appearance. My wife really enjoyed it, so it might be appearing in my fridge here and there, but if I want an AF beer I will be reaching for something else.

Nutritional Information (per 100ml)

0.00% alcohol by volume
27.8 calories energy
<0.5g fat
6.6g carbohydrates
3.6g sugar
<0.2g protein

(taken from the side of the bottle)

Ingredients

Water, Malted Barley, Malted Wheat, Hops, Orange, Lemon