Baltika 3 Klassicheskoe (Classic)

Brewed by Baltika Brewery (Baltic Beverages Holding - Carlsberg)
Style: Pale Lager
St. Petersburg, Russia

This seems like the typical pale lager. Clear pale golden color with a well retained whipped egg white head. Aroma of bland hops, and straw. Flavor is corn sweetner, and some moderate hop bitterness with just a tiny bit of malt grain flavor. Above average in terms of pale lagers, but pretty horrid by any other standard.

Pours an extremely clear light yellow with a decent amount of fizzy/foamy white head. Aroma is typical grassy pale lager. Flavor is not good at all. Sweet, grassy and not smooth at all. Definitely a piss poor, overpriced brew. Avoid.

Gosh this was bad. Really really bad. It didn’t even have the best qualities of an American malt liquor. Pouring rich yellow with a white head, the aroma set me off with a musty, corn, cardboard sensibility, and in the mouth there was insufficient carbonation to off-set the watery, moderately sweet body. The flavors struck some wrong notes as well. I thought this was pretty bad, worse than most macros. It wasn’t even tolerable in combination with various foods that I tried to eat to mask the flavor and mouthfeel.

Bottle. Sweet, full of adjuncts, lots of corn and rice. Very sweet. Kinda skunky.

Pours thin and weak like a late-autumn leaf. Color is translucent yellow with a slight glaze of lace. Flavor is weak hops and piss-flavored malt. No better than a really good macro.

Clear yellow with a thick white head. Light malt aroma with some wet dog. Very clean with a mild malt flavor and a small bitter finish. On the watery side. Not bad but not great.

(16.9 oz bottle: $2 at Wine Time in La Jolla, CA) There’s just something visually appealing to a yellow, crystal clear beer, topped by a large white head, with an army of carbonation bubbles rising through the beer. Independent of what the beer smells and tastes like, it’s at least pretty to look at. Unfortunately, that’s the end of my praise for this beer. The nose is dry and grassy. Dry, grassy, lightly grainy flavor shows mild bitterness. There’s some cardboard flavor going on here, but it’s not overwhelming. Light bodied with a fairly well carbonated mouthfeel, zesty enough to break up what might be an awful aftertaste. Not a very enjoyable beer, but it’s not among the worst either. Maybe on par with BMCs, but it’s been awhile since I’ve had one of those.

Pale yellow colour. Some malts, slightly sour. Acrid finish. Heiniken-level.