Bottle. Bought at BevMo in LA. Possesses shades of the funk that made Gubernija’s Zhiguly (Russian Label) perhaps my favorite beer ever. There’s a certain bizarre mustiness here, a yeasty stuffiness, like an old garage opened after 25 years of disuse. Still, it was only faintly there and I wish there had been more of this Zhiguliness, as it seems that this odd funk in both aroma and flavor defines the style.

Bottle at home Room Temperature... Pale golden yellow ... nice floral very perfumed aroma violets or lavander ? ... sweet floral light fruity again i think i taste lavander ... this is unusual and not what i expected from a lager or from its score but i really quite like this .

I actually quite enjoyed this. This was very good for a pale lager. Beautiful gold color, foamy head, very light and nice taste . I thoroughly enjoyed this after a hot day at the marina. My only complaing was that it was a little over carbonated. Would definitely buy again.

Pours with an almost brilliantly clear, yellow-gold color. It is topped by a frothy, initially one-finger thick, almost pure white colored head. Aromas of sweet malt, a touch of candied corn (from some subtle underlying diacetyl), grassy hops, perhaps a touch of hone, soda crackers and crisp grain are all noticeable to varying degrees. The sweet grain aromatics and the grassy / herbal hop aromas are the most noticeable part of the aroma. As the beer warms a bit it starts to pick up hints of nail polish, though this is still fairly soft.

This tastes lightly sweet up front & even through to the finish, but somehow this still manages to be dry over all. A lightly biting bitterness touches the tongue up front; it lingers through to the near finish but then is held back by sweet grain notes and an herbal (almost menthol like) character in the finish. This beer is fairly light feeling, it has some heft to it though, at least enough to keep from being watery feeling. Perhaps a hint of DMS adds some very subtle cooked corn notes and there is a hint of diacetyl that shows up as a slight butterscotch type thing. These last two are so subtle that I would not even characterize them as flaws, if anything they give this beer a bit more character.

In the end this is not a bad beer, it is certainly simplistic, but has no real off flavors (at least none that are strong enough to not be considered part of the background make up of the beer). Though I should warn that you should drink this one on the cold side as I have a feeling you don’t want it to warm up to much.

Purchased: Bevmo, Palmdale CA

Bottle. Head is initially small, frothy/fizzy, white, mostly diminishing. Body is clear medium yellow. Aroma is lightly malty (grain, husks), lightly to moderately hoppy (flowers/honeysuckle), with a light note of soap, hint of plastic. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, lightly to moderately bitter, slightly husky. Light to medium body, watery texture, lively carbonation. Fairly fresh bottle (just recently arrived in Colorado, AFAIK). Surprisingly nice punch of honeyish-flowery hops (Hallertau?) in the nose, which was unexpected. Yeah, kind of a plain and slightly flawed backdrop for them, but a perfectly acceptable flavor balance helps, and it’s not too unclean either. As the dreaded pale lagers of the world go, this is actually decent, definitely drinkable, and doomed to be underrated (I imagine this goes downhill fast sitting on the shelf for very long).