BREWER: Grolsche Bierbrouwerj, Gelderland, Netherlands

STYLE: Pilsner

ABV: 4%

VESSEL: 450ml green bottle 

TWITTER: @Grolsch

INSTAGRAM: grolsch_global

DATE OF POST: 15th May 2022

 

JYMI SAY’S…

I used to quite enjoy Grolsch as a lad, it tasted pretty good and that bottle, more importantly, that lid was just soooooooo flippin cool. I didn’t go as far as putting the lid on my shoes like the Goss Bros. but certainly had the odd one hanging off a rucksack or two. The lid is just so iconic, never challenged, never rivalled.

However, other than the top of the bot, everything else seems to have changed, only slightly but enough to make a fairly large difference.

Let’s start with the bottle as a whole, still decent but seems smaller and the current label seems cheap. The old sticker absolutely let the lid and bottle do the talking but this current iteration seems, well as I said, cheap. Oh and I’ve just checked the back of the label and it’s 450ml, so no wonder it looks smaller! Grolsch has also dropped to a fairly worrying 4% abv. If this percentage drop was from a smaller hands on brewery I wouldn’t be too worried but a mass produced lager going from 5 to 4% cannot possibly work out well…

But to be fair, the taste is still the same. Look, it’s not great but is perfectly drinkable. However, the percentage drop has definitely affected the body of the beer. It is now very thin and only just held together by an ok flavour.

Drinkable – yes.

Iconic – other than the lid, no, not anymore.

Buy again – I wouldn’t bother actually. Grolsch has lost whatever magic it once possessed.

Jymi’s Rating: 49%

 

SAMMY SAY’S…

Picture yourself in Amsterdam. It’s a hot day. The bartender is serving you a Grolsch. And in that serving, he or she scapes off the excess froth with a beer scraper. Sounds great. And in that scenario, Grolsch would be great. There’s no doubt. It would be in its element. But take away that romanticism and your faced with drinking Grolsch for what it is.  Sadly, it’s not a great beer. 

On the plus side, the sample we are testing here has the iconic beer top. Much better than having a Grolsch with your standard bottle top. Infinitely better in fact. The bottle itself is also clean and crisp. 

But, in the drinking Grolsch is watery. It’s a long way from being a good pilsner. You’d be hard pushed to identify it as one in a blind test. And then there’s the ever reducing alcohol content. Yes folks, Grolsch is now a sobering 4%. And while the percentage itself doesn’t matter, the diminishing flavour over time does. 

This is an unremarkable beer. 

Sammy’s Rating: 49%

 

MUSE ON BOOZE RATING: 49%

MOB review next weekend: VALMIERMUIZA AMBER LAGER by VALMIERMUIZA

Sammy & Jymi – Musing on Booze weekly since 2017

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