Rinkuškiai Biržieciu Classic

Brewed by Rinkuškiai
Style: Traditional Ale
Biržu raj., Lithuania

Unusual, like a dunkel with a light palate. Malt and apple aroma. Sweet malt flavor, and brown sugar, with some salt. Light red color.

[Bottle, thanks Brewfiend] Pours amber with a small white head. Aroma is a bit fruity with some malt. Taste is sweet and malty. Fairly thin. Decent finish. Not good, but is drinkable.

Light amber taste. No head. Powerful alcohol and caramel malt aroma. Sweet caramel malt body with a dry yeast bite throughout.

Bottle. Pours a hazy burnished copper color with frothy head that disapears quickly. Nose is full of caramel, malty, but has some earthiness , sweetness, maybe a hint of cooked vegetable, dust, sour. Flavor is a touch on the sour side, with lots of malt, an alcohol note, some bitterness, some citrus and lemon, some fruit (apricot and date) and some other stuff. At first the flavor had some slightly unpleasant notes I couldn’t define and I decided to wait and find them as I worked through the glass. As I waited and sipped, this ale warmed up a bit and I couldn’t find them any longer. Still a little too sweetish malt for me, and the palate on this is kind of flat, sticky and syrupy thick. On the other hand, this one was interesting enough and not nearly as poorly handled as most of the other beers I’ve gotten off this same shelf at Topp’s. I’m almost motivated to go back and find what I haven’t had yet on that same shelf.

500 ml. Clear, almost darkish copper with a medium head that lasts with a nice tat of lace. Aroma is earthy boiled greens and fall woods, maybe some cedar, and some caramel underneath. The smells and taste are both a confusing mix of alot of stuff; reminds me a bit of some of the Hitachino Nests, which is not necessarily a bad thing. There seems to be mostly British character: fruit-and-nut, twangy sourish malt-forward and a slightly dry-tingly, woody and herby finish. As with the Hitachinos, once I get used to some of the unexpected smells and flavors it’s actually pretty tasty. Post Mortem: Once this reaches room temp, it pretty much smells and tastes like a good Scottish Ale. Once I think about it, a traditional ale was probably always drunk at ambient temp; I recommend that highly for this one.

Its the color of Iced Tea (not to be confused with Ice-T), with almost no head. Decent aroma - woodsy, a bit tart, a bit citrusy. Kinda remonds me of tonic water. A bit smoky flavored, some caramel, some alcohol. Not that bad, actually.

500 mL bottle. Pours dark orange copper with cream colored head. Aroma is lots and lots of caramel and some toast... smells rather sweet, very faint DMS. The flavor is toasty caramel and some grassiness. Some tart notes float around there, but the sweetness still overpowers it. It’s kind of a half-way English barleywine. Personally, I think it is a little underrated, but it does lack a few things that would make it a good beer.

Malty sweet aroma, thin white head that goes quickly and no lacing on the glass. Dark amber coloring, fairly clear with no trace of sediments. Flavor is all malts with very little bittering from hops, though the malts are decidedly more sweet than roasty. The palate is basically mild sweetness up front, and balanced middle, but a somewhat overly-sweet cloying finish in the back. There is no trace of the 8% alcohol, though if you drank a few of these, I’m sure the 1pt. 0.9oz of this easy drinking brew would kick in with a vengeance.