Malt drink (Malzbier)

Malzbier is a dark, sweet drink made of barley malt, hops and water which is not fermented or only minimally so. The malt sugar therefore remains, and the alcohol content is below 0.5 percent ABV. Malzbier is thus an alcohol-free drink with a sweet, strong, caramel-like taste.

In flavour it resembles dark bread and caramel. It is sweeter than regular beer and is often drunk cold. Traditionally it is also mixed with milk or served with egg yolk as a pick-me-up. Because it is not fermented, it differs fundamentally from non-alcoholic beer, in which alcohol is either removed or never formed in the first place.