Rinkuškiai Žaibo

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

Mercy!, but this is a fun beer, pegged by the brewery as "the best-known strongest stout beer in Lithuania! "
Pale copper in body with a film in lieu of a head, it’s got a sweet, worty aroma with a whisp of the sturdy 9.5% ABV opening up the pores of one’s cheeks, snout, lips, and all other facial features in general as you snort the brew. Creamy, warming mouthfeel. Tastes of warm buttered bread, caramel, dirt, maple syrup, and, yes, alcohol fill the mouth with each savored swig. Finishes on a warm, sticky note.
I’m glad I’ve enjoyed this at home rather than in public, because it brings to mind an old tune by the New Riders of the Purple Sage, to whit -

She’s looking better every beer.
Her hair is soft and golden now,
Her eyes are bright and clear.
I don’t know why I didn’t notice her
When I first came in here,
But she’s looking better every beer.

<font size=-4><a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Places/ShowPlace.asp? Beverage Depot, Glen Ellyn, IL<font size=-1>

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.

Poured a light gold color with a 1 finger head that lasted a couple mins. Aroma of grains,semi sweet dough,traces of spicey perfume and hints of malt. Tastes pretty much how it smells. Sticky towards the end. Good stuff and decent bang for the buck. Or should I say $1.49 half liter. I’ll buy much more of this in the future.

Pours gold with a white head. Smells of apples, honey, some crisp malt. Tastes moderately dry with some fruity esters thrown in. Better than their other offerings I’ve had.

bottled $2! Pours looking like a nice typical lager, clear crisp looking & even smells good, a little hops w/ a slight clue of alcohol, barely. Taste is one dimensional, old grassy hops. Alcohol is there but neither adds to or takes away from this beer. I grabbed this b/c it said xtra stout & 9%. The dark beer room @ Greens deceived me pretty terribly on the stout part, yet the alcohol is delivered quite well as a lager. Really under rated... honestly, I think if an American mirco brewed this same beer it would be better received.

Pours hazy gold with white disappearing head. Aroma was just like toasted sesame seeds. Caramel/bread flavor. Sweet but not cloying. Little hop flavor. Alcohol is not strong. A strange but good beer. Still can"t get over the sesame seed aroma.

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.

The beer renounces the 500ml brown bottle a clear deep gold with the head semi-creamy and bright white in color, the size average, as it fades, the lace forms a thin covering upon the glass. Nose is the prototypical lager malt, somewhat sweet with the start slightly sweet and the grain profile adequate for the style, top is relatively thin. Finish is customary in its acidity, the hops archetypal, aftertaste normal and dry, the high alcohol tends to warm the tummy a bit, so all I can say is that its average for the style.