Pilsener

Bottle 33 cl. Golden, clear with a minimal white head. Aroma of malt and light sitrus. Very light bitter with almost no ending, malt, watery.

Bottle @Giraffe, Dubai Int. Airport. Clear, light golden. Small white head. Sweet malt and cornflake aroma and flavour. Sweet with some hoppy bittterness. Finishes watery.

Meh. Not the worst pilsener I’ve had, but far off from being good. Still slightly better than most of the leading beer brands.

Lebanon’s national standard lager - almost every country in the world has one - owned by Heineken. Apparently in existence since the thirties. Moussy, snow white, regularly shaped, lightly lacing head gradually thinning and eventually dissolving in the middle but with good edge retention; straw yellow golden colour, cristal clear with lively fizz and tiny, pale dots of ’dust’ here and there. Aroma is initially dominated by that horrible, ammonia-like, skunked lightstruck effect but once this fades a bit, some other odours show up, dry and very old breakfast cereals, soggy sugarcorn, fermenting grass, wet paper, damp kitchen cloth, lots of iron especially in the foam (clearly head stabilizer), old cardboard, rubber. Neutral to vaguely grain-sweet onset, soggy corn flavor, fizzy carbo, slick and thin mouthfeel. Some grainy sourishness in the middle too, very metallic feeling as well, some vague grassy hop bitterishness in the end but everything remains very subdued and neutral. Another completely generic, soulless, bland and boring macro pale lager, even scoring a bit below average for the style (for me at least) due to the thin body and overall very neutral profile. But a nice country tick of course, many thanks to Ruben for that!

Sweet honey nose. Crystal clear amber, thin head. Cardboard, slight lemony tang. Thin and watery. Weak and oxidized.

(Bottle, 0.33 l - BB 09.03.17, from a fast food stall at Tallinn harbour, 20160722) The beer poured pale golden and clear. Its head was medium sized and white. Aroma had sweetness and metal. Palate was light bodied with medium carbonation. Flavours were sweetness, metal and low bitterness. Aftertaste was sweet. A weak pale lager.

Bottle (from papa joes, sadamaturg). Pours yellow-golden. Aroma is sweet, grainy, cardboard, malty, alcohol, rubber. Flavor is sweet, grainy, malty, cardboard. Overall: not good.

11.2 oz. bottle. A prototypical macro lager in a green bottle: straw color, white head, moderate to high carbonation. Aroma and taste of light malt, corn, faint apple, light skunk. Not great but certainly not the worst in its category.

Bottiglia @ Expo 2015, Milano. Il gusto al naso rimanda al mais. L’intensità olfattiva è flebile e la persistenza olfattiva è corta. Il cappello di schiuma ha scarsa tenuta, con bollicine medie. La frizzantezza ha bollicine poche, con carbonazione morbida a limpidezza nitida. Il colore è giallo dorato. Il corpo è medio. Alla lingua il dolce è medio e l’amaro è leggero. L’intensità gustativa è leggera e la persistenza gustativa è sufficiente. Le sensazioni boccali finali sono di facile beva. Il finale è farinoso e dissetante. Il retrogusto è veloce.