Cesu Extra

Formerly brewed at Cesu Alus Daritava (Olvi)
Style: Pale Lager
Cesis, Latvia

Serve in Dimpled mug, English pint, Lager glass, Shaker

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Canned. Yellow with minor white head. It has a flavour of sweet hops with a bitter twist.

28th May 2006.
Warning! Early amateur rating! Bottle in Riga. Refreshing lager. Slightly fruity. Bitterish but with a clean finish. Respectable.

the curiously shaped bottle no doubt figured into my friends mind in picking an exotic latvian beer to bring home to me. it’s cool: kind of shaped like a baseball bat, tho my guess it that it’s been labeled as exhibit "A" in more than a few trials of assault and battery in riga bar fights. the beer is frightfully pale-- brewed with albino malt presumably-- but the head was adequate and virginal white, a cotton crown suitable for a family-sized aspirin bottle. the hops arrived aromatically intact, all the way from northern europe to just under my nose-- where they resembled saaz and were reasonably pleasing. alas, they were also handicapped by the smell of open manhole, and grapes of the disreputable sort that go into wines like boone’s farm. for all of those flaws, cesu is still quenching and drinkable, albeit thin as a vegetarian lion. there were notes of grain, sweet pound cake, and a bounce dryer sheet. noted was a tinkle of fading bitterness in the finish. the beer may have been designed once upon a time to be a serious pilsner; if so, the process has gotten just a little slack presently. perhaps the poor, jaded brewer lost faith in all mankind and just said "fuck it" and decided to design the bottle to look like a billy club. and then he threw his work-boots into the wort.

Nifty 300 ml octagonal A leCoq brown glass bottle, bought in Riga. ABV is 5.0%. Pale golden colour, large to moderate white head. Fruity and flowery aroma, quite nice. The flavour is also fruity and quite refreshing. Lemony finish. Some more malts and bittering hops might have been a good idea. Light bodied, soft mouthfeel. No masterpiece, but better than I feared.

Yellow colored, lively carbonation with medium sized white head. Surprisingly clean aroma with lemon and esters, some fruits also, still no very much in there. Thin to medium bodied. Flavor is more unclean with mild cardboard, maybe some grainy tones also. Lemon lasts in aftertaste, which dries mildly. Nothing much.

This is my favorite beer. In my opinion Cesu alus is the best brevery in whole of Latvia

Bottle, from Rhythm & Booze, Brigg. Pale gold, initial sudsy big bubbled head soon dropping but leaving a lasting thin white head, moderate condition. Good solid Bohemian hops and sweet honeyed maltiness in the nose, slight startchiness in the mouth with some tinny blood notes that soon disappear leaving gentle grainy malt. Estery/startchy in the finish with some bitterness. Starts well but goes downhill quickly.

Bottled
Nice special bottle - of one Estonian A Le Coq beers, I wonder if beer is also basicly the same.
Pale yellow, small white head. Grassy corn aroma. Malty, crisp and very watery. Like a "Light beer". Too light to be remembered.

Very pale yellow coloured. Some grassy notes in the aroma and in the flavour. Unpleasant plastic notes are there as well. Very thin.

Golden color with a white head. The taste is thin with a light citrus bitterness.