Baltika 9 Krepkoe (Strong)

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

Canned. Yellowish golden colour, small white head. Skunked hops and caramellish malt in aroma. Fruit, caramellish malt and weak hops in flavour. Sticky palate and unbalanced. Alcohol is wellhidden until it gets closer to room temperature.

Provides a solid body and strong flavor to mask that 8%, but otherwise nothing too spectacular. Still, having only spent $1.30 or so on it, I couldn’t complain. Not a bad one to have if you aren’t looking for anything revolutionary.

09.11.05 500ml bottle. Watching Ray "Murderer" Lewis and the Baltimore Ravens on sunday night football seems like the perfect occasion to dig on some Baltic malt likka! Pale gold pour under a thin veil of lacing white foam. Aroma is slightly vanilla and bookstore with hints of bandage. Wow, it’s really sweet and bready with some berry-like fruitiness and honey-coated cereal. Amazingly the 8% is almost completely hidden until the stuff hits about 60 degrees (F) or more. Slick and coating.

Bottle. Pours a rich brown/gold. Aroma is stagnant, but slightly sweet. Flavor is buttery hops and malt. Finish lingers. Not a bad beer, but one is enough.

This grew out of a partnership between Efes and Baltika. So this is similar to Efes Extra, a very good strong lager. Pours pale yellow like a good pils. Great foamy white head, fades slowly with some nice lace. Aromas of alcohol, apple, yeast. Tastes of apple, light hops, sweet fruit and malt. Good all-around lager (by the way, it’s bottom fermented). I’d have it for a daily drinker -- beats hell out of Bud and Miller.

Clear, pale green-straw body with a sudsy white head. Medium sweet with notes of corn, honey, and melon. Sweet flavor with some grainy spice and fairly subtle alcohol. Not too bad, I would happily swig this from a paper bag while sitting on a curb, if I could only afford this and nothing better than a curb to sit on.

Clear, pale yellow body, fizzy and active carbonation, and an inch thick head combine to form an attractive looking lager. The larger than average size of 500 ml. necessitated poring into an imperial pint glass, which also aided in the appearance. Aroma was lemony, perfumey, alcoholic, and slightly vegetal, but overall not a bad smell for the style. Taste was rather simplistic due to the excessively sweet and underattenuated body. The hops were present, and evident, but not in a quantity sufficient to offset the sweetness. Unlike the domestic malt liquors, I could not detect any harsh adjunct flavors. There was a nice lemon twist sourness imparted by the clean lager yeast strain. Alcohol was not too obtrusive either. The bottle had a best before date of 4 September 05, so I guess the ageing on the shelves of Green’s did this beer some good. Either that, or I just like this one better than most of you.

Light golden color with an initially large white head. Aroma is corn, malt and alcohol. Flavor is more of the same. Body is not bad. OK for what it is.