Rinkuškiai Žaibo

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

Damn, finding these foreign beers on the database takes longer than drinking them!! Nose of sweet grains, cereal, alcohol, and if I sniff real hard, berries. Pours a sparkling golden. The fully diminishing white head leaves very minimal lace. This is 9.5%? The ABV is pretty well hidden in the flavor, just a hint of warmth in the middle. Pretty sweet through and through all the same. The medium body is syrupy and lively, the finish feels alcoholic. Not bad really. Oh, by the way, I scored this @ Viking Premium Beverage on King Ave. in Grandview.

(Bottle) Pours a clear golden body with a small off-white head. Aroma of Juicy Fruit gum, caramel, light floral, and freshly ground grain (exactly the same as the Aiko). Flavor of caramel malt, sour dough, and sweet corn.

Tastes exactly like the Aiko. Bottle. Honey body with a quarter inch foamy head. Nose-cinnamon, Juicy Fruit gum, aggressive nose. Taste-medium CO2, medium sweetness, fruity, melon, apricot, powdery candy, very powdery, strawberry, alcohol, strawberry quick, perfumey., In the end it is good but too sweet.

500 ml. bottle, blurb and coded lot/freshness date on the back label, sampled in a lager glass. On my bottle the ABV is listed as 9%. Poured a dirty tarnish golden with a small white foamy head, better retention than I was expecting, settled into a thin creamy lacing. Smells like a decently brewed malt liquor, cheap gin and vodka-like ethanol, touches of grain malts and old musty hops. Malt liquor type of boozy moderate bodied mouthfeel, also has a stale alcohol flatness to it. The alcohol is the king here, boozy ethanol that meshes with syrupy sweet pale malts, a sugar buzz. Used up, spent, musky hops become barely noticeable towards the end. Cheap malt liquor finish, dryish, sweet and laced with stinging alcohol. Well, I’ve tried it, so now in the future I can pass it by when I see it on the shelves.

500ml Bomber - Gravity Room - Olympia, WA.
Aroma – Malty with a yeast background with very little other aroma
Appearance – Golden amber color, clear with a thin head
Flavor – This was a poor Lager strong maybe but the flavor was metallic and deep with light struck. Must have took this beer forever to get here.
Palate – The beer ws metal to the tounge and very poorly drank
Overall –One of my few drain pours. OUCH

Let’s visit Lithuania! Has a big red tag on the neck that brags about the alky content. Has a big fib on the label that says ’extra stout’. This made me think it was going to be some kind of dark beer, I was fooled. When popped, smells yeasty like any other decent beer. Big 16.9 oz bottle. Sparkles allot when poured. First taste is simply offensive, the aroma gives you no inkling of what lurks within. Strong volatile unrefined malt liqour, must be Litho’s idea of cheap american malt liquor. Looks like any other ubiquitous pale yellow american lager. Tatse is quite rude and crude thru the session. Each sip left me wincing. Finish is whiskey laced beer. Will not buy again, satisfied my curiosity with a punch in the face. Leaves a burning sensation in my tummy. Reminds me of my teenage pal’s montra when buying malt liqour ’want to get drunk fast?’

Ugh..this is awful. This is the second ESL I’ve had this week and I am picking up a theme....I don’t like them. Aroma was pretty strong (which saved this rating from the 1s) and smelled of honey, alcohol and sticky malt. Pour was a light thick gold with no head. Taste was obsurdly sweet...corn syrup, sugar, and honey with no alcohol burn and no hops to balance out this sugar water. It does hide the 9% exceptionally well as all European Strongs do. Blah. If the alcohol content is a selling point for the beer, I get skeptical. This beer had a carboard thing hanging off the neck with a big 9.0%.

500 ml. Deep golden and clear with a medium sized head that lasts well. Aroma is honey, grain, and cream. Flavor is the same plus some slight alcohol and delicate bittering, grassy hops on the finish. Palate is nearly medium and smooth.