Beer Review: Grimm Artisanal Ales – What is Love? (Lemon Radler)
Style: Hefeweissbier / Lemon Radler
ABV: 3.3%
Base Beer: Grimm Weisse (Hefeweizen)
Key Ingredients: House-made lemonade
Brewery Location: Brooklyn, New York
Radlers can occasionally lean too sweet or taste artificial, but Grimm Artisanal Ales treats the style with the same elevated execution they bring to their wild ales and IPAs. What is Love? is a brilliantly crafted summer hybrid that blends their award-winning, best-in-show Grimm Weisse Hefeweizen with a house-made lemonade. Knocking the alcohol down to a hyper-sessionable 3.3% ABV, this beverage is an elite, thirst-quenching refresher engineered for heavy rotation on warm afternoons.
Appearance
This radler pours a beautifully opaque, deeply hazy pale straw yellow that perfectly mimics a glass of fresh, country-style lemonade. It forms a quick, frothy white head that crackles with active carbonation. While it settles faster than a standard heavy-wheat beer due to the lemonade blend, it maintains a handsome, thin cap that looks incredibly inviting on a hot day.
Aroma
The nose is a beautiful collision of classic German brewing and bright citrus. Right away, you get the authentic Hefeweizen yeast esters—soft banana, background bubblegum, and a distinct dusting of clove spice. However, these traditional elements are completely amplified and brightened by an upfront punch of fresh lemon zest and vibrant citrus oils from the lemonade blend, giving it an incredibly lively, sunny bouquet.
Palate & Mouthfeel
On the palate, What is Love? delivers a masterclass in balance. The base wheat beer provides a soft, pillowy, and gently creamy mouthfeel, which keeps it from feeling watery despite the low ABV. The carbonation is brisk and lively, carrying a big, juicy wave of real lemon flavor across the tongue. The natural, sharp acidity of the citrus is met with just enough balancing sweetness to keep it smooth and refreshing without ever becoming cloying or sugary.
Finish
The finish is remarkably clean, crisp, and snappy. The natural tartness of the lemonade cuts right through the mid-palate, wiping it clean while leaving a mouthwatering hint of lemon rind and a whisper of bready wheat and clove spice in the background. It is an enormously crushable beverage that resets the palate with every sip.
Grimm has knocked this out of the park for the summer season. By using an exceptional base Hefeweizen instead of a generic lager, they have given this radler an extra layer of spice and fruit complexity that pairs beautifully with citrus. It is bright, energetic, and flat-out delicious, an absolute must-buy by the gallon when the weather warms up.
Please Note: To ensure absolute freshness and optimal storage temperatures, all craft beer arrivals are sold exclusively in-store and are not available for online ordering.
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