Whilst visiting Paphos, Cyprus, I did my ritual of buying nearly every different beer in the local supermarket close to the hotel. Snuck between leading Cypriot beer Keo and the Cypriot brewed version of Carlsberg was a greek beer that I heard overwhelmingly positive things about called Mamos. This beer was a curious find out about and review. Like all my reviews I will cover the history, the pour quality, the taste and aroma and my verdict towards the end.
History: A classic that was revived by a Heineken subsidiary
Mamos Beer was founded in 1876 by Petros Mamos in Patros, Greece. Petros Mamos is an interesting character as he was Greece’s first formally trained brewer, having studied in Munich. Petros utilised malts, hops and yeast from Bohemia and used innovative techniques in order to start brewing around the beginning of 1900 and was brewed continuously until around 1976.
Mamos Greek pilsner became iconic in Patras and even became so popular that ads adorned spots in Athens. However, tragedy struck and brewing ceased in 1976.
Thankfully, after a 41 year hiatus, the brand was revived by the Mamos family and Athenian Brewery ,a subsidiary of Heineken, which kept the practice, recipe and most importantly the local character. After two years, the greek beer surpassed 40,000 hectolitres in Sales. Leading to wider distribution across Greece and Cyprus.
Mamos is a traditional greek beer which carries a 5% abv and retains features such as a full bodied taste, rich foam and distinct hop aroma not too dissimilar to its German counterpart.
A pour in line with it’s heritage
As you can see, it is hard to see the proper colour of this beer as all I had in my hotel room was a blue glass probably not meant for beer. However, Mamos had a clear and golden to straw colour which was remarkably bright. On the top, the head holds a thick, white and fine-bubbled foam that is very persistent for a lager. I think the original recipe utilises three different hops thats led to the consistent carbonation that I noticed.
I feel this beer stands out as more of a continental european lager rather than other greek beers such as Alfa and Mythos.
Munich roots and a Munich taste and aroma
As discussed earlier, Petros Mamos intended for this Greek beer to have a German recipe. This evident in its distinct taste and aroma especially when you have just opened the can.
Firstly, the aroma has a distinct hop smell which in turn is actually not overpowering. It presents a herbal and grassy aroma from the three types of hops which unfortunately I cannot identify the types. In terms of maltiness it had faint bread crust to biscuit taste. Imagine an in between in terms of sweetness. The aroma is overall clean and well balanced in terms of hop and malt.
The taste has a malt backbone which in turn adds a lightly sweet and bready taste. Having roots in Germany, it adds a dry finish and moderate bitterness which is more comparable to a German pilsner than a sweet Mediterranean lager. Also, do not forget the herbal taste mid palate.
This beer has a light to moderate mouthfeel with lively carbonation which is quite refreshing to be honest.
And time for my verdict on this beer
After a bit of consideration I observed that this beer drinks like a beer that tries to imitate German beer which is not too dissimilar to beers in the UK. I feel this beer does very well to adapt the flavour to make it refreshing for the hot Greek climate which is easy drinking and flavourful. However, I feel there is something missing though, I can’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe it is the fact that it is not brewed to Reinheitsgebot and perhaps lacks the purity. But this is definitely not a bad lager by any stretch at all. Compared to Mythos or Alfa, it’s less sweet but holds more hoppy punch and more persistent flavour. This in consideration makes it the superior mainstream Greek lager. To wrap up this Greek beer review I will rate this 3.5 out of 5. This is overall a great pick up if you are visiting Greece or Cyprus.
Where I bought this:
I was staying at Mare Paphos which is located in Kissonerga. Over the road from the hotel was a supermarket and restaurant called Crazy Spoon. I believe this cost around €1.80.
Thanks for reading this and let me know what you think in the comments. Feel free to explore my other beer reviews.
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