Birell

Brewed by Al Ahram (Heineken)
Style: Low Alcohol
Giza, Egypt

Can shared with GregClow, mds, jerc & mabel -- courtesy of GregClow. Pours a pale gold with lots of bubbles and a spare diminishing white head. Weird and unpleasant aroma of burnt caramel, grass and vegetables. Flavour, unfortunately, follows the aroma. Average bodied. Awful, a small sample was more then enough for me.

I had a can from Al Ahram in Egypt, brewed under license. It was largely disappointing. The color was relatively dark, an amber that suggested some malts, but at the same time it seemed like food coloring. Some head. At first all I could detect was a kind of mineral water flavor, being fizzy but without flavor, but the cardboard, corn cob, and tin can flavors welled up and make it difficult to drink, much less enjoy. At least the palate wasn’t the problem, as it had a bit of body and the carbonation wasn’t out the mainstream. It wasn’t aggressively unpleasant, just mostly unpleasant. One sort of cool thing was the pull-back top, the kind that leaves a sharp, curled up piece of metal, the kind of which I haven’t seen on a beer can in many years.

Can. Pours a light, clear golden body with a small white ring of head. The aroma is sweet and cereal-like along with metal and vegetables (cabbage). Devoid of body - watery and grassy and typically very light. Not too enlightening.

Can. Crisp yellow body with a small white head. Very grassy, grainy aroma with sweet vegetal notes. Very sweet, dilute flavour with notes of caramel and mild vegetal notes. Average palate has a bit more body from the residual sugars I think.

Birell brewd under license by Al Abram in Egypt. Light gold blond colour, small white head. Some carbonation. Sweet light hoppy aroma and cooked vegetables. Not really enjoyable. Flat, sweet taste. Finish is sweet, with a slight taste of cooked vegetables again. Much to sweet, no texture, clearly no alcohol, rather a bad one.

Canned, brewed by Al Ahram in Egypt (0.0%). Very pale yellow fizzy looking with brief head. Raisiny wort aroma with some black currant. Sweet, thin and metallic wit hnotes of saccharine and sourdough. Finishes with some blood, but no bitterness. Mediocre but drinkable N/A.

[284-20070503] 330mL (c/o GregClow, w/ him, blankboy, jerc, mds). Very sweet caramelized toffee aroma. Clear, light yellow pee body with a disappearing bubbly froth on top. Tastes like watered-down liquid caramel with some floral notes. Light body. Not repeatable.

Can shared with blankboy, mds, jerc & mabel. My can from a falafel joint near my office. Egypt-brewed version. Pale gold colour with a wispy white head. Aroma is quite vegetal (tomato juice, peas & carrots). Thin, watery body. Flavour is light and inoffensive at first, but it develops some unpleasant rotting fruit notes as it warms. Pretty gross stuff.