Baltika 5 Zolotoe (Golden)

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

I have an itch that only Baltika can scratch! Now, mind you, these are in a can; the only way to enjoy a Baltika brew. Appearance: Pours a yellow body with a small, fizzy, white head. Smell: Sweet-smelling cereal nose with light floral hints. You know, the usual. Taste: Pale maltiness with a unabashed sweetness throughout -- like liquid breakfast time cereal! Hint of cooked veggies when you drink deep, so you might want to avoid that. Very skimpy on the hops, with only a very minor bitterness present. A beer that leaves you hungry for a big bowl of grits. A touch watery on the finish, with a tiny touch of grain. Mouthfeel: Medium-thin body. Medium-high carbonation. Drinkability: Good? Heavens no! But it’s not altogether terrible for being just a simple pale lager.

Bottle. Transparent golden straw color with a fizzy, dissipating head. Pretty much your shitty macro Eastern European Lager, semi tolerable only due to low alcohol. This is a beer for nationalistic Russians and cheap international beer ponderers. Sweet sugary flavor, bare minimum hop balance, and an artificial aftertaste. Best to avoid this one, and yet, it’s probably better than half the Baltika line.

The lightest beer I had. Bottle...pous a pleasant yellow with a thin head. Tastes empty. Needs to be reworked I think this would be 3 times better with more bitterness. It’s really lacking.

What bothers me, is that if i didn’t know any better, 5 years ago i wouldve rated this a lot higher because it would have been a rare walk into the "russian beer industry". whatever it consists of. today i know it tastes like crap. Pours a clear yellow colour, small grainy white top. Aroma is of corn, grain and wet dog. Taste is grainy of course, stale hops and watery. i didn’t expect much from this beer. but not expecting much, is expecting a lot with this one.

Golden...beer with a small fine head. Moderated aroma of malt and light hop. The taste is moderated too, nothing exciting, grassy hop, little sweet malt, empty, watery. The best Baltika is the no. 6! Try it, it is a good porter!

bottle, clear yellow pour, faint nose, malty sweet flavor with a flabby muddled finish

11-Feb-08 (500-ml bottle: Purchased 09-Feb-08 for $1.99 at Ledger’s Liquors in Berkeley, CA) Bready and extremely cardboardy with only slight hop flavor or bitterness early, but the finish is all cardboard, and it’s a pretty atrocious aftertaste. Honey-sweet, bready grains with only a little cardboard in the nose, so this beer certainly smells better than it tastes. Light-medium in body and medium in carbonation, but being sweet and cardboardy with no hop bitterness, the beer sits heavy and stale on the palate. Slightly hazy golden-yellow in color with a foamy, off-white cap that rises to a full inch on the pour, but quickly subsides to a partial film and wide ring. No lacing on the glass. This is a total drain pour if intended to consumed in spaced out sips, but I suppose this is drinkable if chugging is the desired method of imbibing. That way, the bad aftertaste never sets in until the bottle is empty, so a quick chaser is necessary. One of the worst Baltika beers, but with so many vying for that title, it’s hard to tell them apart.

Draught: Poured a golden color with a white head. The aroma was sweet grain, spice, and malt. The taste was refreshing with a grains very clean and a sweet malty finish.