Baltika 5 Zolotoe (Golden)

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

Pretty boring, it’s a sweet corny mess of a beer. One of those lagers you want to be ice cold otherwise it’s undrinkable.

This beer is golden and the head is white. The aroma has notes of malt, light straw and flower. The flavor has a light sweetness and notes of malt, light fruit, light caramel and the finish is slightly dry.

Very light gold with surprisingly thick look, fizzt foamy tight macro head. Smells of yeast lemons and grass. Tastes of deep sweet pale malt, some lemon,pale fruit, I expected much worse.

500 ml bottle in gift pack from LCBO, served at cellar temperature in the Baltika glass.

App.: Clear golden with a fair white froth. Aroma: Slightly sweet and fruity light malts, a little toast/biscuit, some corny adjunct, a bit of light grassy hops, a bit dusty and musty. Palate: Medium body and carbonation. Flav.: Like the nose, with a touch less hops; dry with a touch of bitterness and a light malt finish.

Lacklustre, but still worth rating.

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.