Light beer of reduced calorie content, with a pronounced hop taste. Bouquet with hints of spices, herbs, flowers. Clear malt accent, fermentation clean.
Color – light, golden or straw, transparent. Forms a weak unstable foam.
The style is light-bodied, soft, well attenuated, malt and hop tones are low but clear. The taste is sweetish-bitter.
Leichtbier is a lightweight diet beer, sometimes wheat, sometimes based on other German types (for example, kelsch or altbier, “old beer”). It was traditionally brewed for seasonal workers so that they could quench their thirst, but not get drunk.
In fact, the style is a lighter version of pils or helles: the same ingredients are used to make it, the difference is only in the final strength and fullness.
Strength: 2.4-3.6%.
Density: initial 1.026-1.034, final 1.006-1.010.
Bitterness Index: 15-28 IBU.
Colour: 2-5 SRM