Rinkuškiai Žaibo

Brewed by Rinkuškiai
Style: European Strong Lager
Biržu raj., Lithuania

Pours a cloudy golden color with a hin white head. Aroma is Call me crazy, but it tastes almost like a dunkelweizen with sweet malts and honey flavors Mouthfeel is thin and watery, but it does hide the high ABV well. No clue why it’s called a stout and it’s not something I’d drink every day. But for a novelty drink it’s not bad.

.5L bottle served in a shaker glass. Hazy yellow pour topped by minimal head. Smells of apples, dough, and caramel. Firm malt presence with a hint of bitterness. Has some honey character. Much better than I expected.

Bottle thanks to Mike. Pours a clear and light amber with a thick, but quickly deflating white head. The aroma is full of sweet malts and bready notes. The taste was actually quite nice; a quite sweet bready, and strong malt presence, along with some pear and alcohol aspects. Very smooth and a somewhat bitter/skunk finish.

hazy dark golden color with a small creamy yellow head. no lacing. very sweet honey, cereal, dry dog food aroma. flavor is extremely sweet with honey and cereal grains. medium-full bodied. touches of sweet tarts or something....cant quite figure it out. hints of lemon, caramel apples, green popsicles, and cola. weird stuff.

I hated this one. It’s like a slightly refined steel reserve. Malt liqour fans will love this beer. Stout means strong in some countries so don’t expect a black colored beer.

The label says "stout"; obviously it is not. It seems to be a mistranslation for "strong". And Strong it is! My bottle claimed 9% rather than 9.5%, so maybe I got an old bottle... but 9% is still a healthy wallop. Žaibo pours brownish-gold and cloudy, an appearance I found murky and unappetizing. Let me put it this way: if this stuff came out looking the same as it went in, I’d call a doctor. But the beer was a bit more pleasant to drink than to look at. The alcohol isn’t quite as overpowering as I thought it would be; and while it’s very sweet and yeasty, with a syrupy mouthfeel, it’s not quite as cloying as Uosto, which was the last Rinkuškiai beer I’d had.

Bottle. This is the best tasting Lithuanian beer I have had to date. That’s not saying much though. This had a much better taste than the others. Smelled like the others though except the smell of alcohol is more prominent. Appearance is the same. Overall I would recommend it once.

Let’s just get one thing straight up front -- this is not a stout! This is a very sweet, strong lager with precipitous alcohol. The bottle I purchased at Chevy Chase Wine & Liquor actually had a small, red paper hanging around the neck advertising 9.5%. I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP. Pours an amber color with a white head. Nutty amber, malt smell, rough like dog food. Creamy, silky, very sweet taste. No discernible carbonation on tongue. More of a barleywine than a stout. Palate is very aggressive.