Kronenbourg 1664

Brewed by Kronenbourg (Carlsberg)
Style: Pale Lager
Obernai, France

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

UPDATED: JAN 19, 2007 Actually smells better than it tastes...so whilst promising a great deal only partially delivers. Still largely enjoyable though

Notes for me: Refreshing West European Lager. Decent hop bitterness, but little aroma or finish. Thiner feel like the popular (yuk) American lagers but with more malt and overall more refined......less maize I suppose.

don’t know what it is but i love skunky beer

Pours a clear pale gold with small, sparce rising bubbles and a dense, frothy, white head that sticks around for quite some time. It eventually diminishes leaving some solid lace. The aroma is skunked, a real shocker for a bright green bottle from a mix-a-six shelf. ;) Once it "airs out", I get a light grainy presence backed by a touch of faint, grassy hops. Light-bodied and thin with soft, fine carbonation-nice for a pale lager-finishing clean and crisp with just a hint of metal. The flavor is a clean and crisp sweet malt front with a lightly grassy hop backing and far less "metal" than I detect in many widely distributed pale lagers. This one’s not too shabby. I like it enough that if I could find another single that has been better protected from light, I’d try it again.

Pale Lager month installment number 8: Vive La Pale Lager! Wouldn’t you just believe that, the first skunky pale lager this month comes to us from a green bottle.... A cool bottle admittedly, but green nonetheless. The beer pours a fairly pale golden color with a big fluffy, semi loose, white head that leaves a good lace on the glass. The aroma is skunky at first, this fades and leaves us with mild hay and honey notes, really not a bad smelling beer but for the skunk. The flavor is displays some sweet malt and sweet corn, the one thing I’ve always liked about 1664 (yes I’ve had it before) is that it has this nice delicate hop character that is subtle up front than leaves an herbal, almost floral and earthy bitterness in the finish. It really makes you forget the sweet messiness that you get when you first sip it. I’ve not had the beer in years and I had figured that that character was a figment of my imagination, much to my surprise the hoppiness is more pronounced than I had ever remembered. The palate is thin and fizzy but there is sort of a long finish that I like about it. It’s a nice enough pale lager. Might be worth it to try it on tap?

Bottle. The price of this beer has always shied me away from purchasing for my own enjoyment, but at a party today I took the opportunity to try a Kronenbourg for free. Not bad, but not much different than your typical overpriced imported pale lager (Stella, Becks, etc). This beer has a corny smell with a crisp, clean and dry finish with pale notes of golden apple.

Draft at Flying Saucer. A golden beer with an OK head - but it disappears all too quickly. The aroma is nicely hoppy - but a little too faint. The flavor is fresh at first, then a bit malt sweet - but then it turns watery. It gets a little back from the nice bitterness.

oh my goodness. This bear was a pleasant surprise. Not your typical lager and that might be the only reason i was pleasantly surprise. This beer has a pleasant taste. Sweat and grassy with a slight earthy end. The aroma wasnt there, the appearance of a typical lager was short of being, but the taste was very nice, easy and pleasant. very nice.