Baltika 3 Klassicheskoe (Classic)

Brewed by Baltika Brewery (Baltic Beverages Holding - Carlsberg)
Style: Pale Lager
St. Petersburg, Russia

A friend and I got together on 1/30/2007 to have a "Salvation" tasting and he brought over a couple bottles of Baltika 3 for us to enjoy with our pizza before the tasting. This was my first exposure to both Baltika and Russian Lagers in general. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but overall I was quite pleased with this particular beer. It really hit the spot at the time and complemented the pizza nicely. It pours a pale yellow color with a foamy white head that actually didn’t disappear too quickly and left some light lacing. It had a good amount of carbonation without being over carbonated. The aroma with light malt and delicately sweet like creamed corn or something. The flavor was similar with a modest bitterness toward the finish. This beer was well balanced in flavor as well as mouthfeel. It is a lighter beer, but isn’t compleltely lacking body or some perceptable mouthfeel as an American macro lager would. It was smooth and clean. I enjoyed this introduction to Russian Lagers and I would drink this particular beer again in the future. I will also have to try out the other Baltika beers over time... 16.9 oz bottle (Best before 01.06.06 25KW) from Rob. Thanks Rob. I appreciate it!

It’s kinda sweet and the flavor is so "delicate" you can’t even find it. I told the guy at the liquor store to drop this in favor of the # 8.

light gold with a thick bright white head. moldy apple skin nose. this is horrid. bad pear juice and dirt, glue and rotten wood. horrid tang in the finish. boiled corn taste that is killing everything incredibly rough

Faint hops and corn aroma. Light golden yellow body with decent carbonation, small head, sparse lacing. Flavor is bland, corny grass and alcohol. Palate: There is none. This beer is a classic example of... Whatever :-(

Poured from 500 mL bottle a slightly cloudy gold color with a large white head. The body and texture were a little bit thicker than I expected and the carbonation was fairly high. The taste was mostly bitter, with a slight sweetness. Aroma was of corny and grassy hops. The beer was ok, but I was hoping for better.

Canned. Pale yellow colour, almost no head. Aroma of maize and alcohol. Flavour is paper, grass and is quite horrible. Typical canned chemical waste.

The aroma has lightly toasted malt and grassy hops. The appearance is pale gold with a nice foamy head. The flavor is like the aroma which means it’s extremely boring but has both sweetness and bitterness. The palate is thin. This one is not as bad as the #2 but it’s not all that either. The bitterness is just to astringent.

This Russki beer is absolutely disgusting. I can’t fathom what it tastes like, but its horrible. Actually, it’s almost radiactive in taste: could this beer be the link to the mystery of how the Russian spy was poinsoned to death in London?!?!