Gold Pulsar 12º

Brewed by Samarqand 1-son Pivo Zavodi
Style: Pale Lager
Samarqand, Uzbekistan

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

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Bottle@DTS. Horrible aroma of Uzbekian wild wet dog. Golden color, small off-white head, no lace. Soapy, grainy, metallic, nasty mouthfeel. Why did they sacrifice malts and hops to creat this awful stuff.

Bottled. Golden color, short head. Grainy aroma, buttery. Sharp bubbly taste, soapy. Crap.

Bottle @ Dutch Ratebeer Session. Aroma has wet dog, grain: a dirty smell. Clear, golden coloured with a thin, white head. Taste is bit sharp, bit oily. Horrible. Luckily it wasn’t in a big PET-bottle as in the picture but in a normal glas one.

Bottled. Clear golden coloured, white head. Smells really bad, it’s the wet dog jbrus mentioned, some grain as well. Soapy. Dry and bitter finish. Absolutely horrible.

Bottle @ DTS. Grain and olive oil in the aroma. Grainy, oily flavor, perfumed. Old hops, probably. Hint of butter in the aftertaste. Terrible.

UPDATED: AUG 28, 2004 I flew red-eye into Frankfurt, then transfered to Tashkent. I stepped out of the airport, and immediately caught a long-haul bus to Samarqand. Six hours in a bus with no air con in the Uzbek desert in the summer is not a fun time. As I usually do when I visit the former USSR, I started to get very thirsty and the guy next to me handed me his water bottle. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but he'd filled it with tap water. Can you say giardosis? I knew you could.

Anyway, the bus broke down about a half hour from Samarqand, which gave me an opportunity to give my bowels some much-needed relief. No such luck for my head, after twenty-nine hours of being awake. Another bus came along and we were all herded in and off we went, me riding shotgun with the driver's goat on my lap.

The outskirts of Samarqand are less the spectacle of grandeur of Timur's time - and endless sea of the classic four-story concrete Soviet apartment blocks, and factories belching the blackest smoke you've ever seen. The driver told me his brother worked in one of the factories - they made milk. Damn.

We were dropped off around the corner from the Registan, and by this point I was near death I think. But I had to get one look at what I'd come so far to see. Before I rounded the corner, I stopped at a vendor for some shaslyk, and grabbed a bottle of Gold Pulsar - my first Uzbek beer!! Then I turned the corner and stood face to face with the Registan. I've seen some amazing buildings in my time - the Church of the Resurrection in St. Petersburg comes to mind, but this was something else. I forgot about how lousy I felt and just sat there. I opened the beer. A blast of Saaz leapt from the bottle. I wasn't expecting that. I took another whiff - hot damn I was impressed. Then I took a swig - brilliantly biscuity pale malt notes underpinned a rich, almost stickily abundant hoppiness. Amazing. The shaslyk was well-spiced and cooked to perfection, the sun was starting to set on the Registan, and I had this glorious pilsner in my hands.

Either that, or Per sent it to me in the mail and it was a classic Soviet lager complete with the aroma of latex paint, cider, cereals and gasoline, the palate matching for a bit before mercifully fading into wateriness.

Re-rate: I'm in Samarqand, I'm sitting across from the Registan, and Gold Pulsar still isn't very good. Light dull gold colour, paint thinner aroma, cider, paint thinner and higher alcohols on the palate. Yum.

clear deep golden colour, strange and strong aroma of old apples, honey and distilled fruits, sweet, no hops, no bitterness, long aftertaste of cellar and potatoes - very bad but not as tragical as I was fearing (though I don't think I'm gonna finish my glass...)

UPDATED: AUG 15, 2011 Bottled (1.5l PET bottle). in 2003 Deep golden with smallish head. The aroma of old apples that have been buried in a cellar for years strikes as a cobra the second I put my nose down the glass. Buttery with mellow body and hints of glue, but without a single trace of hops. Wow, this is good old fashioned USSR style brew... <Re-rate, bottled in 2011. This is still as bad. Impressive continuity.