Bottle at Deanso’s last THT. Clear light golden with white head. Skunky, some sweet malts and cardboard, dusty herbs, rotten sugar juice. Light sweee and almost medium bitter. Light bodied. Shit.

Barwa złota, klarowne, piana średniej obfitości, niezbyt trwała. W aromacie estry, jabłka, ruski szampan, lekka słodowość. W smaku słodowe, niby jest wodniste, ale coś tam się jednak dzieje, estrowe. Goryczka do niskiej, wysycenie średniowysokie, średnio pijalne. Sikowate, mało ma w sobie z pilsa. Typowy jasny lager.

Fluffy, just off-white head over crystal clear metallic golden beer. Rather sweetish, pale malt’s nose, bit of manure, bit flowery. Sweet malts, adjuncts, maltsyrup. Awful. Sticky-slick, light body, undercarbonated. This is an abomination to what Czech Pilsner ought to be. Only a Russian... Or did the Czech send them something else, they choose to call Zatec?... Dankjewel, Aga, Het was TOCH Russisch!

(#404)(#2 RU)(#2 Saint Petersburg)
Bought it at "Tesco", Brno, CZ

Baltika ’pils’ (pale lager) obtained through a Slavonic shop in Groningen (Netherlands). Medium thick, moussy, off-white head dissolving quickly in the middle, over a cristal clear, pale golden blonde beer with slightly greenish hue and quiet fizz. Nose is heavily impaired by the dreaded ’lightstruck’ effect (skunked - cat pee, so to speak), completely covering fainter aromas of soggy white bread, sourish grains, minerals and a faint whiff of grass, but literally nothing of the Czech (hop or even malt) features promised on the label. Fairly neutral onset, sweetish cereal-like graininess with a sourish edge, clearly malt extract presence (I suppose in powder form), spritzy and lightly souring carbo, supple but thin body. Graininess simply continues in the middle with a very vague metallic edge, and the finish adds nothing further except from a mineral water-like aftertaste; granted, there is a weak hint at grassy hop bitterishness way back in the finish adding just a little body to the finish - barely preventing it from becoming as thin and watery as e.g. the blandest of Latin American standard lagers. This is the only redeeming feature I can think of: in all, this is a bland, watery, cheap and industrial pale lager, completely the type of beer that sparked the whole craft beer revolution as a reaction against it. I had worse standard lagers than this, but what bothers me in this particular case (political and historical issues aside) is that the - Carlsberg-owned - Baltika brewery presents this to their consumers as a Bohemian Pilsener. Imagine Bud Light, MGD or anything of that kind being advertized as a ’svetly lezak’... This is not only blatantly untrue (in spite of the commercial description about the history of hop culture in the Czech town of Zhatets), it is completely disrespectful of the original Czech Pilsener style, with which this thing has absolutely nothing in common regardless of "brewer’s intent" - point off for that, and probably the last time I sample a Baltika beer.

Il gusto al naso riconosce orzo e frumento. L’intensità olfattiva è normale e la persistenza olfattiva è sufficiente. Il cappello di schiuma a bollicine medie resiste poco. L’aspetto del liquido è limpido. Le bollicine sono medie, come pure la carbonazione. Il colore è giallo dorato brillante. Il corpo è medio. L’amaro è leggero. L’intensità gustativa è leggera e la persistenza gustativa è sufficiente. Il gusto è piacevole. Le sensazioni boccali finali sono di pronta beva. Il finale è pulito e dissetante. Il retrogusto è di media intensità. L’aroma in bocca riporta sentori pane e cereali.