Aldi Sainte Etienne

Sainte Etienne is Aldi’s alcohol-free beer, positioned as an affordable, easy-drinking alternative to conventional lager. It is designed to offer the familiar characteristics of a light, refreshing lager while containing little or no alcohol.

For this tasting, it is worth considering how well Sainte Etienne achieves the balance expected from a straightforward lager. Rather than looking for the intense hop character or complexity found in craft-style alcohol-free beers, the focus is on refreshment, balance, drinkability and how convincingly it resembles a traditional lager.

This makes Sainte Etienne an interesting comparison with more heavily hopped or craft-oriented alcohol-free beers, particularly when assessing the different approaches breweries and producers take to creating a convincing alcohol-free beer.

Appearance:

A loose head forms when poured but very quickly dissipates to almost nothing (like a fizzy drink).  Clear amber with plenty of bubbles rising from the bottom.

N.B. I read a review of this recently where it was pointed out that this beer looked flat, I got the opposite.

Nose:

Quite an authentic lager-like aroma (think Foster’s). Some summer fruit, breakfast cereal like cornflakes, honey and a little malt.

Taste:

Subtle sour candy sweets, tropical and faint citrus fruits and malt. It’s not a million miles away from shandy.

Finish:

The fruits and sugars vanish fairly abruptly. Some malt notes linger too.

Overall:

I really enjoy this. Very refreshing, friendly and approachable flavours, not too fizzy and enough flavours to keep me interested.

Drink With:

Anything at this price, lots of sugar though so be careful

Would I buy Again?:

Absolutely! At around 80p per 500ml bottle it’s possibly the best value for money NA beer there is!