Gran Alpin Amber

https://www.appenzellerbier.ch/de/beer/gran-alpin-amber.html

Brewed by Brauerei Locher Appenzeller bier
Style: Amber Lager
Appenzell, Switzerland

Brauerei Locher AG is a Swiss based family business located in the town of Appenzell, near the Alpstein Alps. The brewery is in the hands of the Locher household, since 1886, and presently running into the fifth generation of family ownership.

Their Appenzell Beer (Quöllfrisch hell), which I found very smooth and enjoyable, is known throughout the country as one of Switzerland’s finest beers, due to the traditional methods of production and use of the local fresh spring waters that produce a lovely clean natural beer. Also the fact that the small independent brewery is standing after all these years, and still producing top quality beers is a testament to how popular the independent brewery is. Something that hasn’t changed since 1886 when Johann Christoph Locher bought the brewery over a hundred years ago.

Appenzell beers are available throughout Switzerland with the Quöllfrisch and Vollmond brands being particularly popular. Apart from the wide variety of specialty beers they also make whiskey, a beverage one doesn’t perhaps associate with Switzerland.

Review: 33cl dark brown bottle of Gran Alpin Amber: 5.0% vol

Bought this beer from the local Coop supermarket here in Basel, bought it in a six pack in a nice black packaged box. The bottle itself had a smart logo with the majestic looking Swiss Alps looking all nice and shiny.

Apparently this is an eco and bio friendly beer with the malted barley produced by organic farmers in Grisons, the Eastern part of Switzerland, and also using natural spring water from the Alpstein, part of the Appenzell Alps.

It also is produced using a two fold fermentation process. The Gran Alpin Amber beer is first fermented with bottom-fermented yeast, then fermented with a top-fermenting yeast, a process that takes about six weeks to complete.

On pour got a small white head that fizzled out pretty quick, with a dark amber coloured beer.

Head died a death, a very flat looking beer, not appealing on the eye at all!

No carbonation and also not a lot in the bottle, I wonder where it all went to!

Got a nice enough smell on the nose, very malty, caramel, grainy, some barley, and refreshing enough albeit a little faint too.

The taste is nice but not a whole lot in it. It is smooth and tastes likes a good old fashioned lager, but there are little flavours or tastes to get into in this beer which is all a little disappointing.

Taste is malty and barley flavoured, and sweet, all in the front end. Smooth enough, but with a bit of a slightly bitter off aftertaste at the end.
Front end is ok, can’t taste much though or feel any of the alcohol. Very light and tasteless.

Not great, very dull and boring, which is a shame.