Baltika 3 Klassicheskoe (Classic)

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

Bottle, Tesco have started stocking this regularly but prior to this my regular source for the last few years in Oxford has been the small Russian Supermarket on the Cowley Road, plus one or two Lithuanian and other East European beers can be picked up here. Golden colour with a large frothy white head, bit highly carbonated for my liking. Clean and crisp come to mind but lacking somewhat in the flavour department, some bitterness otherwise a bit drab.

Bottle sampled with Stegosaurus. Pours golden with a white head. Aroma of sweet malt, grain, and corn. Flavor is grainy, watery, thin, weak.

Bottle. Slightly skunky. Perhaps beer store had it in the sun. Little to no head, boring fizzy yellow. Flavour wasn’t terrible, but didn’t have enough of it.

From a 1pt. 9oz. euro brown bottle with a blue foil wrapped neck and a best before date on the back label. Made a decent appearance, poured a clear pale lager golden with foamy white head that settled into a thin, bubbly lacing, good carbonation. Had a fruity, grainy malt nose with a light spicy floral hoppiness. A crisp, smooth light bodied mouth feel, good drinkability. Pale malty taste, lighty sweet fruity and a clean graininess, a dry spicy hoppiness, spiky and adding crispness to the taste, and a dry, crisp sweet grainy finish, very nice. One of Baltika’s better lagers, tasty and quaffable at an affordable price.

(bottle - 500 ml) Clear yellow pour with a big amount of puffy white head. Light aroma of corn, hops, and some sweet malts. Taste is very dry and crisp at the front with some grains and hops in the middle and a very smooth and dry finish. Aftertaste is clean and smooth with a slight hint of bitterness.

Aroma holds a hearty bready mash of grains and hay. Pale yellow in color with a tight white thumb thick head. Fore is sweet honey laden malts followed by some grassy hops and a slightly vegetal finish. Yet another pale lager, but decently made and offensive other than a bit of cloying sweetness.

Canned. Clear golden, fizzy head. Papery nose. Sweet and medium bodied with fairly soft mouthfeel. Not much happens flavourwise, except for some vegetables and blod cutting in towards the finish.

Bottle, 50cl. Murky, off gold in colour. Poured but with no real head, which faded quickly in any case. Light Body, low carbonation. Had a slightly malty aroma, which accompanied by a slightly bitter lager taste. Barely noticeable finish. One of those thousands of average lagers, more interesting than bland commercial brews (a la Fosters) but I wouldn’t get it again if I had a choice.