Quilmes Cristal

Strong lager aroma. There are floaties in this brew which generally means it is dated. I bought this at AJs Fine Foods in Pheonix, and although they sell singles of most of their beers, I don’t think they properly rotate their stock. Small head, and thin white ring around top of glass. Pale gold in color. There were two unidentifiable black flakes in the beer. My guess is that they are paint chips that got into the bottle when I opened it. There was no bottle opener in my hotel room, so I used the metal railing outside to open it and may have scraped some paint into the brew. Flavor is very unspectacular. Tastes just like the dozens of other international lagers I have had over the years. There is nothing distinguishing here. Still, next time I’m in Argentina, I will rate a bottle just to make sure I get a fresh one.

CAN. Light golden with white head. This is a thin beer with nearly no flavour and no finish.

Bottled. Poured a clear pee-golden with a quickly-receding white head. Aroma was highly medicinal, with grains, light metal, and faint sweet malts. Flavor also had a medicinal tinge to it... sweet malt, corn, grains, and cardboard too. Watery on the palate, with very little power to the aroma or flavors... I just listed what I could pick out. Drinkable, but that’s about it.

Pours pale yellow with white body and heavy carbonation. Aroma of grain. Flavor is mildly hoppy with a grain aftertaste. Now I know what not to drink the next time I’m in Argentina.

Can. Clear, light golden with a white head. Light malty aroma with hops. Flavor is mostly malty, but it’s weak. Thin, quaffable beer. (060224)

Crystal clear, light (pale) yellow body. The head is white and frothy and dissapears rather quick. There is really no aroma to speak of. The flavor has a light hoppy nose to it, there is a definate citrisy highlight to the bear. Very crisp and clean finish. Not a strudy beer, but very refreshing. Good beer for a warm summer day.

19-Feb-06 (12 oz bottle: BevMo in La Jolla, CA) This came in my Beers Of The World 10-pack, so I might as well share my second impression of this beer. Well, it’s pretty much water. Mild cardboard in the flavor isn’t disgustingly strong, but because there is so little flavor here, the cardboard still ends up being the focal point. The lightly aromatic nose is lightly grainy but otherwise uneventful, so this tastes worse than it smells. Extremely thin mouthfeel can’t possibly be any more watery, can it? Medium straw color shows perfect clarity, but no carbonation bubbles ascending through the beer. I guess the only real difference this time around is the beer pours a tall, white head and manages to retain a thin layer atop the beer for as long as I can stand to drink this stuff. And there are a few wisps of lace on the glass too. Oh well, thought a second chance might help, but no not really, this is still pretty awful stuff.

15-Jul-04 (12 oz bottle: Trader Joe’s in Pacific Beach, CA) Less sweet than some Latin American pale lagers, but perhaps even less flavorful (which actually may be a blessing in disguise); Mildly sweet corn, no hops, minimally bitter, with mild cardboard in the fairly dry finish; Thin, watery mouthfeel with some carbonation; Wet cardboard in the nose; Pale yellow in color, but I’ve seen lighter; Almost no head on the pour, and what little shows up is gone in an instant so that not even a small ring of head is retained; Lacing? Ha, that’s a good one, tell me another! (3, 1, 3, 1, 5 = 1.3)

Bottled. Pours a brilliant yellow with a sizable white head. Slight maltiness in the aroma but I really have difficulty finding anything at all really. More malty than I expected but rather bland with a somewhat astringent quality to it.