Old Russian beer brand – since 1875 and popular before the Revolution – that has been redesigned “for the 21st century” by MosBrew, a brewery in Moscow. Comes from a 1 l bottle with screw cap (!) and, more surprisingly, is apparently an ale (the label indeed says “premium ale”) conceived to mimic a standard pale lager… This is the world turned upside down if you ask me, but I can imagine this was indeed the case originally when the ‘Lager revolution’ swept across Europe and Pilsener-derived pale lager especially became the standard for ‘beer’ in general, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. I guess this particular one in that sense can be interpreted as some sort of ‘Muscovite’ Kölsch, more than an English style bitter, as it is classified here… Thick, eggshell-white, foamy, membrane-lacing, very stable head on a crystal clear ‘old gold’ coloured beer with pale ‘metallic’ orangey tinge and some visible sparkling here and there. Aroma first revealing pasteurization, that typical ‘cooked grains’ and ‘freshly ironed cloth’ smell – which puts me off immediately, followed by impressions of raw broccoli, soggy rusk, wet toast even, a rubbery and sulfuric hint (burning rubber, freshly struck matches), paraffin, rusty iron. Neutral onset, sweetish graininess but no ‘vivid’ fruitiness whatsoever, medium carb (softer than expected) with very slick, glueish and bit metallic mouthfeel. Dull cereally maltiness with a very faint toasty-bitter touch to it, minerally edges; bland finish, plastic-, glue- and iron-like aspects accompanying ongoing dull graininess and only the faintest touch of grassy hoppiness, but no hop aromatics at all and hardly any bitterness. If this is indeed top-fermented and the intention was to imitate a bland, boring, dull, thin, metallic, industrial pale lager as closely as possible, then the mission is accomplished. Industrial rubbish all the same, I could hardly finish a glass of this liquid, let alone a one liter bottle… As expected, this has nothing to do with bitter at all – in fact I had actual industrial pale lagers from Russia that tasted better (though not many).

Bottle. Medium head with medium duration. Color is golden. Aroma and taste are malt, grass, old hops, fruits and has a bready and light bitter finish.

# 517; 11/2016. Odporný pokus o pivo. Sladké s nepříjemnou mladinovou chutí a drsnou až odpornou hořkostí - vylito.