Next up we have some tasty, tasty beer in the form of Grafenwalder.
Grafenwalder is a German beer company exclusive to Lidl. There are several different styles of beer but I’ve only ever seen two of them at my local Lidl; pilsner and wheat. I’ll be reviewing the wheat beer soon, but this post is only about the pilsner.
Grafenwalder Pils comes in a 500ml can with a design that makes it appear more drinkable than most other cheap beers. Clocking in at 4.8%, the beer is around the same strength of most other similar drinks. Each can of Grafenwalder is 89p, which is on the expensive side of things. Combining this with the beer only being sold in individual cans in a shop that never gives you a bag means that Grafenwalder is not a beer which is easy to buy in bulk. I have previously attempted to buy an entire crate of it, but trying to carry 48 cans of beer in a 2 inch high flimsy cardboard box simply ends up in a car park full of dented beer cans.
My first experience with Grafenwalder was when I saw Norwegian rockers Taake performing at a concert. Their lead singer, Hoest, spent the duration of the show drinking it, so I figured if it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for me.
It wasn’t forming a head so I started pouring it more violently but then it got too big.
Grafenwalder pours a large head which quickly disappears. It seems slightly darker in colour compared to other beers, but the can says it’s brewed to German purity laws and I don’t care enough to look into it any further. The beer gives off a standard pilsner aroma which is much more pleasant than I expected. The taste is slightly pissier but still not too bad. It contains notes of Stella Artois, freshly cut grass and that weird taste you get from shitty bottled water.
One strange thing I’ve noticed about Grafenwalder is that it is really hard to cool. After being in the fridge for several hours it still isn’t at the ideal shitty beer drinking temperature. Once removed from the fridge it also seems to heat up to room temperature a lot faster than any other beer. My theory is that it comes in a steel can rather than the usual aluminium can which is acting as some kind of insulator, although I’m no gynecologist so take this with a pinch of salt.
Overall Grafenwalder is not a terrible beer. It’s slightly expensive but definitely preferable to the likes of Budweiser and Carlsberg. Grafenwalder is definitley a beer for getting drunk during the summer rather than the winter, although you could stockpile it during the cold months and harvest the heat it radiates.
Booze Review rating: 6/10 deliciouses
