Leningradskoe Svetloe

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

Held onto this .5 L bottle way too long. Brought from Russia in 2004 along with other beers, vodkas, and our wonderful boy Vanya. Wanted to share this with a Russian-speaking acquaintance who could never make it out and whose diabetes got worse. Okay, I’m opening it to celebrate our move, having let it "lager" for 4 years. At least it’s been in the fridge almost the entire time.
Pours straw yellow, lots of bubbles, and a nice big head. Smell is light bready malt, a whiff of adjunct. Taste is actually above the usual cheap lager. A bit of fusel at first, but it clears away quickly. Does in fact seem to be an all-grain taste, just a basic balance of hops. Light citrus note. Goes down very well in the summer. I’m sure if I’d found this in a store around here, it’d have sat in an uncooled warehouse under florescent lights for months and tasted awful. Probably cost 75 cents American over in St. Petersburg.

500mL bottle. Another sample of urine. This one has an amazing white foamy head. Nice skunky hop aroma (for a lager). Not much flavor. Very light beer. Body and texture. An OK Lawn-mowin beer.

Copper-gold, clear; thick and fine collapsing off-white head. Creamy, coconut nose initially, going over in grassy malts; bit of corn flakes. Not bad. Starting neutral, taste glides over burning caramel and cornflakes. Hops in the finish, without getting really bitter. Something almondy retronasal. MF begins watery, but fills in gradually, with even quite some malt (or adjunct) slickness. Better than the usual Russian stuff, I might have been a tad generous because of this with the marks.

I got a bottle of this at Lukas Liquors in Kansas City. The best before date is about two weeks prior to my drinking. The body is slightly hazy medium gold with a small white head. The aroma is fresh carrots and some fruit character with apples. There is a hint of dry hay. Actually, this smells decent. The taste was a let down after the smell. It had lots of dry grass character with a hint of iced tea. There is also a little bit of whole wheat bread. This gets a little sour as you drink more.

Light yellow, skunky and bready aroma. Yeasty flavor has some sweetness in it too. Mildly hopped, ending is somehow grassy and dry. Refreshing carbonation. Better than average russian lagers, still not very good in international scale.

Very pale straw color with a moderate, white, fluffy head. Nice small bubbles continually stream to the top. Aromas of pale grains, grass and wild flowers. Very sweet, with malt and corn syrup. Small amount of herbal flowers come in mid quaff. Somewhat thin and fizzy in feel. A light euro lager, that still has some of the strong qualities and flavors. Certainly beats many micros.

Light in colour and flavour. There is some tartness in the end. Could be found in PETs only.

Pour is a bright gold with a big fluffly white head. Aroma is sweet malt with a bit of vegatable. Flavor is again some sweet malts and some grassyness. Nothing great but it is refreshing after cutting the grass on a humid day. Bonus it that it only cost $1.99 for an 18 oz bottle.