500ml Bottle - Dark golden/amber in colour. Malty, slighty citric and hoppy aroma. Lemony taste with some malt and hops and a lingering bitterness. Quite refreshing.

500ml bottle.
Fruity simple aroma, some hops too. Big hoppy bite, very bitter, and a little anaesthetic. Full body, tangy and chewy. Good lager.

Bottle. Pours a deep golden colour with a small white head. Aroma is a bit sweet with some bitterness and grains. Sweet soft bitter hopy and malty flavour

my opportunity to sample this beer is a monument of good intentions over beer-nerd sophistication: this came to me as part of the "great latvian beer airlift of 2007" (my partner went on vacation there-- don’t ask me why. sniff).

i know as much about latvia as i do about curing constipation in geriatric gerbils-- or the dark side of saturn’s moons. not that any such knowledge is greatly requisite in simply rating a beer; i just don’t want to endorse a beer if they use slave labor or anything unsavory like that over there; i mean, for all i know, they get their brewing water from the same treatment plant that services the nuclear reactor.

barring those considerations, i found a beer that immediately wanted to learn my language and adapt to it’s host country. "whissssst" it sang out when i popped the top, and like any american thoroughbred, it galloped into the arena with it’s frothy white mane tossing, and with the shade of yellow only associated with the better-made tin grommets of the world.

fairly clean grains highlight the aroma, especially grains that came to us in plastic bins. it has a distinct "circus-peanut" kind-of orange-scented cotton candy aroma-- or imagine if jello made a lemon-hop flavored gelatin dessert. not at all unpleasant, and probably quite an allure to those factory workers who might in fact BE slaves. how should i know? anyway, seriously, i have no complaints: this is a decent enough straight-forward quencher, tending toward a medium body, grainy, dry, well-carbonated, and with enough fresh-tasting hops to rank it respectably among the ubiquitous euro-pilseners.

but... if i can only get her to go to belgium NEXT year!!

More bitter than the red-labeled «Tērvetes» (this one is slightly more expensive and carries black-coloured label, just like the famous scotch whisky). Color is golden, clear. Not bad.