Baltika 5 Zolotoe (Golden)

Bottle pours golden in color with an extremely thin white head. Aroma is extremely vegatative w/ some skunky hop presence, but primarily grainy and cornfed. Flavor is exactly the same with a tiny bit of caramel. Starts sweet, finishes dry, nothing worth mentioning. Pretty light body.

500ml can, shared with Stefan in Tallinn 21.Oct.09. Clear yellow, with filmy layer and no lacing, which might be a result of me sampling it from a toothglass at the hotel. Sunflower and grain, with hints spice and orange in both aroma and flavour. Sour/unripe orange finish.

500mL bottle from an LCBO gift pack. Too bad about the clear glass. Pours a nice bright gold with a medium white head. The aroma is of crisp pale Pils malts, minor hoppiness (Saaz?) and not much else. Flavour is quite mild, simple pale malts with a good crisp finish and faint hop zing. Slightly oily feel on the palate. This really could be a whole lot worse than it is. Really not much to talk about though. Zero off-flavours of any kind, it’s quite clean. I’m also impressed by the total lack of skunkyness despite the clear glass bottle. Not a let down and when I buy more of the Baltika gift pack I won’t mind drinking it again.

Pretty traditional big brewer mass market stuff. Better than drinking tap water if I ever find myself in Moscow again. Sweet nose, sweet taste, frothy, vanishing head, no lace.

Highly carbonated, light yellow color. Worried about skunk given the clear bottle, but aroma was actually ok. Taste is VERY sweet- creamed corn, white cake, frosting. Not unpleasant, but can’t take too much of it. It’s like a sweet white wine. Maybe would taste better if it were 85 and sunny out, but it’s 55 and raining, so that doesn’t help. Overall too sweet.

this could easily be one of the worst beers i have ever had, i would rather have a bud than this. terrible beer, the lord have mercy on the soul of whoever brewed this.

Sampled on 9/24/2009. Bottled on 6/7/08. Oh NO!, the beer is past its best by date! This pale lager pours a light orange gold color from a clean 50cl bottle. Medium sized white foamy head. Aroma is cereal and grain, sweet corn and hay. Not all that unpleasant. A medium bodied Pale Lager. The malts are cereal and sweet, touch of grain. The hops are kind of spicy. Lively carbonation. A touch of corn and vegetable flavors kind of dominate the malts. Get more pronounced as it warms. Not horrid but not very good either. Mouthfeel is thin. Finish is clean and crisp. Aftertaste is slightly bitter with a touch of metal and some cardboard.

Musty smell, sour/bitter taste, aftertaste lingers too long. These Baltikas aren’t turning out well.