Holsten Pilsener

Brewed by Holsten-Brauerei (Carlsberg)
Style: Classic German Pilsener
Hamburg, Germany

Pours clear yellow, Aroma of malt and saaz. Smooth refreshing, hoppy. Not bad at all. It is very much what I have come to expect from Hosten, a decent affdordable European beer. As for the pils. Its pretty good.

Bottle in Knightsbridge from a supermarket. Golden body with decent head. Straw and grainy nose. Taste is bland and grassy. Not so much to it. Some bitterness in the finish.

Bottle: Pale golden, lazy carbonation, quite stable firm white head; minerals, metal and straw in the nose, combined with waves of a harsh bitterness; light bitter-sweet flavour, light bodied to watery; metallic, tart bitterness in the short sweet-bitter finish. Poor.......

Can. Clear, golden. Pretty rank aroma. Tastes pretty sweet, slightly grainy. Not the worst lager but nothing special.

On draught aboard the AMA Amadagio. The beer is a clear yellow-gold color with a medium and fluffy white head that recedes slowly. Stringy lacing on the glass. Mild spices and grassy hops in the nose. Light body with flavors of bready malt and grassy hops. The finish is mildly sweet malt with a short hops aftertaste. Slightly below average overall.

50cl bottle. Pours a clear pale yellow with a white foam. Lots of grain and hay in both aroma and flavor. Medium to thin body. Bitter and dry end with citric notes.

[Bottle at the Hook & Tackle, Reading] 275ml bottle with yellow label at 5% ABV. 20 years ago, all UK pubs seemed to sell this, but now you rarely see it. I vaguely remembered it being one of the better mass-market lagers at the time. So... how does it taste nowadays? Well.. pours the usual gold with a small white head; soft carbonation. Slight sweet, grassy aroma. Dominant flavour is honey; there’s a slight bitterness in a muted, leafy finish, and an oddly cloying coating is left inside your mouth. It’s certainly a little different to the other mass-market lagers in that it actually has something of a distinctive flavour and character. It’s probably this fact that it’s not crisp and clean (ie not tasteless), combined with the dated-looking packaging, that has caused this lager to decline in popularity. For my part, I thought it was OK as lagers go, but with the sweetnes and cloying mouthfeel I’m not sure I would have wanted to drink much more of it.