Krušovice Imperial 12°

Brewed by Královský pivovar Krušovice (Heineken)
Style: Bohemian Pilsener
Krusovice, Czech Republic

Nose of grass & hops. Pours a pale golden straw. The tall stiff mostly lasting off white head is both rocky and creamy. The cascade is nice, as is the lace. The brew is balanced if non-descript. Low acidity and a light bready finish with some spice are about all I can say about this one. The light creamy body is soft, the finish feels crisp.

10-Sep-07 (500 ml bottle, "Born By" 11-Mar-07: Purchased 10-Aug-07 for $2.19 at BevMo in La Jolla, CA) Inexplicably and without warning, this beer was pulled from all BevMo locations, but not before I was able to snag a few. This golden-orange colored beer pours a beautiful, fluffy, white head that unfortunately recedes a big quicker than expected, settling to a scattered film and wide ring. The noticeable chill haze dissipates somewhat, but the beer remains rather hazy throughout the session. In the nose, bready malts have a slightly grainy character, and the aroma of hops is very light, but a bit of soggy hay in the background is a slight distraction. Lightly sweet, bready, grainy, corny attack is partially tempered by muted hops, but as the hops quickly drops off the palate, the bready malts pick up a hint of honey and dominate the finish. A lingering note of metallic taint hangs over the beer, though it doesn’t really diminish the enjoyment of it. Medium in body with medium-strong carbonation, but the lack of cleansing hop bite allows the unobstructed bready malts to leave a generally stale mouthfeel before the session is done. All in all, a fairly typical imported Czech lager, which means it’s still pretty good, but it relies too heavily on a sweet, grainy malt backbone and therefore doesn’t generate enough personal excitement to stimulate future purchases, though it’s not likely to see shelf space at BevMo again anyway.

Clear orange pour with a small white head. Smells of grain, skunky hops, and the smallest malt presence. Nothing eciting whatsoever. There is some malt sweetness present in the taste, and the hops are pretty much nonexistenet. Maybe a little cinnamon flavor in there, but that might be generous. Nothing exciting at all here, but I wasnt expecting anything either. LIved up to expectations.

Gold. 2cm of dense, frothy, white head. Aroma of grainy, corny malt and light sweetness. Flavor is more sweet with the same corny grains and a lightly skunky finish. Medium body, smooth, easy drinking. 2.82 score could be rather generous.

0.5 l can. Pours deep golden to orange body with pretty large ebony head. Strong aroma of citrus hops, with some pale grainy malts. Flavor bit bitter, but fine for pilsener, not so full, but not either too watery. With oily texture and quite lot carbonation leaves pleasantly long finish, not bitter at all. Good pilsener, of course, still does not outstand other Bohemians.

50cl can from Systembolaget. Pours a rich gold with a nice foamy white head that leaves some lacing on the glass. Tastes very balanced; slight sweetness, slight bitterness, and a little alcohol and citrus. Not really bitter enough for a bohemian pilsener though. Tastes more like a generic pale lager. Not as good as pilsener urquell. Too bad.

Hazy bronze, large pillowy white head, good lacing and retention. Aroma is grain and cereal, light butteryness and grassy hops. Very carbonated, uninteresting grainy malts. No thanks

Medium white head with a golden body. Good balance of malt and hops, very enjoyable.