Who Lola is is a mystery, but she must really like coffee and beer to allow such a fine creation as this to be made in her name.
Coming from a German brewhouse, you would expect this one to be good. And it is, combining flavours of strong coffee with the subtleties of chocolate to make a rich, dark porter that replaces alcohol with caffeine.
We're not saying that it can or should replace your morning coffee, but there's no alcohol in it so in theory you could just stick a bottle of this in your mug.
There's a lot of coffee in this one and it's obvious from the moment you pop the cap that this will be the main taste. It's like a cold brew coffee and in aroma, is very similar to the Mikkeller Flat White we've reviewed this month too.
The pour is light, as alcohol-free brews tend to be, but there's a thick, creamy coffee-coloured head that forms. The initial flavour is quite subtle coffee, but that turns into a much stronger flavour that is combined with a delicate sweetness running underneath.
The sweetness is very subtle, it doesn't really come out until the beer warms a little to room temperature but then it combines lovely with the coffee flavour, with a slight bitterness to finish off into the aftertaste.
This is a very clever label. It wasn't until i'd really studied it that I realised quite how clever. It's almost argyle, but in shades of light and dark brown diamonds. The dark brown diamonds contains the letters for 'lola' and the light brown diamonds contain the letters for 'porter', and they spell it out repeatedly around the label.
It says coffee on the front under the name of the beer to leave any browsers without any doubt as to what the flavour and style is; and the words 'alkohol-frei' underneath make it obvious that, even in German, this is an alcohol-free beer.
The Wise Bartender has been a big help in out low ABV month, and this is another one from their fine range of wares.
Priced at just £2.59 it's about the same price as a small coffee, but it's much more refreshing.
