Slovak Pilsener named after – and depicting – the humble pheasant, bottle from a Russian supermarket in Ghent. Snow white, thick, foamy, cobweb-lacing, coarse but very stable (iron-enhanced) head over a crystal clear, pure ‘old gold’ coloured beer with visible sparkling. Aroma initially lightstruck (the dreaded ‘cat pee’ effect) but otherwise exhibiting lightly toasted white bread, bitter garden weeds, minerals, dry bird seed, bitterroot extract and decorator’s wallpaper paste. Neutral onset, very fizzy, minerally and ‘clear’, sweetish-sourish dull graininess, slender but with a touch of white-breadiness (maltiness) to it still; strong glueish or indeed wallpaper paste-like side flavour, calcium-like minerality and a metallic ‘zing’ somewhere (though the latter does not dominate at all). Grassy hop bitter finish, short but still more bittering than your standard industrial pale lager, while this wallpaper paste flavour continues as well. Being so close to the Czech Republic (and having been united with it for a long time), it is no surprise that the Bohemian style pale lagers have their equivalent in neighboring Slovakia as well, but as this example demonstrates, the Slovak versions usually are no match for the Czech original. That said, I had way worse pale lagers than this one so that plastery effect and it being lightstruck aside, this is certainly above average if regarded as a standard pale lager rather than a true Czech ‘světlý ležák’.

Can via Tesco. Moderate body, med-high carbonation. Mostly clean, though med-light grainy astringency is present. Faintest hint of grassy earthy hoppiness, which is refreshing. A hint of esters and high alcohols too. But overall okay among the macrobeers.

# 635 et 1091; 2/2017 et 6/2018. Reklama na to, jak by pilsner chutnat neměl. Sladký, maltózový, bez chmelové hořkosti.