Budweiser Budvar Tmavý Ležák (Dark Lager)

Brewed by Budweiser Budvar Ceske Budejovice
Style: Dunkel
České Budějovice, Czech Republic

Bottle from Booths, Knutsford. Not being a massive fan of Budvar beers (IMO vastly over-rated) I thought i’d give this a go to see if they could make a decent go of it. Admittedly it’s better than the lacklustre 12 or the bland 10 but it’s not a patch on beers like Herold or Zubr. A good roasty, caramel and malty aroma is followed by a dryish, toasty, slightly chocolatey and roasted flavour with a subtle bitterness in the malty, burnt finish. Overall a little too understated for me but it’s not a bad beer by any stretch.

Bottle picked up at Morrissons, Aylesbury 8th August 2006, and drank this in a field at Cropredy, Fairport Conventions Cropredy Festival Saturday 12th August. Dark brown with a slightly off white coloured head that was quite big and frothy, some nice bitter chocolate aromas, very good bitter and roasted taste with nice maltyness coming through, very good, have had this in Prague on draft as well and really enjoyed.

Green bottle. Sweetly malty aroma with caramel, toffee, and chocolate powder. Very dark brown with a lacing light brown head. Crisp and fizzy. Predominately bitter. Powdered cocoa and dark chocolate, toffeeish grit. Weakling seems to be overcompensating. Not extremely harmonious. Very dry finish. Taste lingers long . A little too reminiscent of cola.

Bottle. Smooth dark beer with a nice white head. The aroma is milky and coffee, and the flavour is quite dry, bitter coffee with a slightly milky stout quality. Overall a nice beer.

Hugely attractive aroma of roasted malt and chocolate. Rich blackish body with a creamy beige head. Beautifully rounded interplay of pale, Munich, caramel and (most assertively) roasted barley malt. Got so excited I spilt it all over my notebook. Essentially a robustly bitter stout with a malty sweetness in the background. Big, roasty, smooth- bodied...and impossible to resist.

Bottled. A black coloured beer with a reasonable whitish head at first but that disappears fairly quickly. The aroma is dry and roasty; pretty stout like really. The tste is also roasty but this time there’s a little lactic character. A tad smoky and really quite tasty. Thinner in the body than the aroma promises but still a good drink.Score 3.5
Subsequent rating also scored 3.5.

Pint poured at the Jolly Gardeners in Putney (London), a carbonated black with a good frothy light tan head. Not a strong aroma, some caramal if anything. Some light roasted flavours, the carbonation made it refreshing, with dry bitter finishing. Served cold, was reasonably enjoyable in the 30-degree heat.

Bottle. Dark brown with red tints and a beige head. Aromas are chocolate and wheat malts with light roast character. Flavours are chocolate and lemon with cola. Gritty and prickly. Some light coffee. Dry and refreshing. Decent, but not quite as good as Herold Dark.