Feldschlösschen Red Castle Ale

www.feldschloesschen.ch

Brewed by Feldschlösschen
Style: Red Ale
Rheinfelden, Switzerland

Feldschlösschen is the best known beer brand in Switzerland.
It has been brewed at the Feldschlösschen brewery in Rheinfelden, the biggest brewery in Switzerland, since its foundation in 1876 and has been the leading Swiss beer brand for more than 100 years. Today it’s by far the leading brand in the country with 45 per cent of the beer market.

The brewery logo is in the shape of a castle and Feldschlösschen means ‘small castle in the fields’ in German.

Have tried Feldschlösschen beers before, most notably their main brew, their Pale Lager which I actually liked, much to the chagrin of beer geeks everywhere. Yes, it is a generic lager but on a hot day a cold one is great. As I said at the time, it is a “bloody good beer!” Also tried their strong Pale Lager, Feldschlösschen Stark , at 7% ABV. Also found it quite nice and did the business. Another one I drank was their Feldschlösschen Frühlingsbier, a seasonal spring beer, which was shit, basically! Also found their Feldschlösschen Ice, a cold pale ale, had a bit of an off taste, difficult to enjoy and giving a killer headache!! So you can see, it’s a bit of hit and miss with Feldschlösschen!

Review: 33cl bottle of Feldschlösschen Red Castle: 5% vol.

Bottle in nice red lettering and we are told its a dry hopped brew.

On the red bottle we get the names – Micheal Essig and Nicola Kitter – and their image, very stylish and cool. Apparently these two are part of the brewery’s “apprentice project” where the aim is to increase the attractiveness and awareness of basic brewing training in order to have more qualified professionals in the brewing industry. This is a leg up in the business and helps young people venture into the beer industry through the skills of marketing and brew making.

It also highlights the lack of young talent in the industry as there are currently well over 1,000 registered breweries in Switzerland but only 13 brewer apprentices are trained in about 30 breweries.

So this beer is all produced, brewed, packaged and marketed, through the hands of the selected apprentices, and sold as a pack of six all over Switzerland in Coop stores (their exclusive partner in this project) with all proceeds going towards the training fund of the Swiss Brewery Association. I will drink to that, only happy to help!!! Cheers, or Prost!!

Straight from the fridge, the bottle all nice and cold, pours a very decent frothy white head and there is some good carbonation going on. Golden amber colour and the good sized white head……..which dies a bit, but overall its a good looking beer on the pour.

On the nose it is very light, a small lagery style smell, with a hint of some fruit and citrus…but faint.

The taste is of a cold lager, light and not a whole lot going on…….to be honest.

Little in the way of flavours or real standout tastes.

It is smooth for sure, and has a good sweet ale taste to it, but its all on the low level.

Also the bottle doesn’t give enough on the pour….. beer goes quick enough!

Overall not much to shout about……smooth and light, but the flavours and tastes are well hidden, and all one can get really is the malts making it all a bit too watery for my liking, especially as its meant to be an ale.