Steinlager Classic

Brewed by Lion Breweries - NZ (Lion Nathan Co.)
Style: Pale Lager
Auckland, New Zealand

330 ml bottle, London. Pale golden sparkling beer, poor head. Moderate hops and grass in the aroma. A tolerable amount of hops in the flavour makes this beer A LITTLE better than the average swill lager. Won’t buy again, though. I you want a good NZ lager, look for Emersons in stead!

Yay for skunky gold! This beer was so damn clean and crisp, that’s about all I can say.

This beer won countless awards years ago and then seemed to die in the arse as soon as the businessman walked in, another dead beer!! On the nose a typical NZ hop aroma belted out grassy, moss rock wafts. Small, loose, foam white head with good lacing, sat atop a pale yellow body, with an obscure green tinge. In the mouth, a thin, soapy palate led through to a short grassy aftertaste. Little malt at all, a thin body and high alpha ’Green Bullet’ hop plaguing everything, unbalanced this one, completely. What awards???!!!

Basic lager aroma. Clearest gold body, white head that is mostly diminishing. Some visible carbonation. Bland with some bite; very dry. I had this brew back in 1986, the last time I was in Honolulu. This is my first trip back here and I thought I try to sort of relive my high school days. Interestingly enough, the logo depicted on the photo on this page was the same logo Steinlager had 19 years ago. However, the bottle I bought tonight is different. They must have recently changed it. I like the old one. I bought it at the nearby ABC store next to my hotel, the Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel. I was tempted to buy one of the 3 Kona beers available, but I know I will be trying them all at the Kona brewpub on the Big Island in a few days. Otherwise, the ABC store has a horrible selection. As I was going up to pay, the store clerk was wheeling a dolly full of Bud and Bud light to the cooler. Wake up people. Although Steinlager is basically a blah beer, at least I was supporting an import, not BMC. Overall, no flaws but no redeeming qualities. And, neither nostaligia nor the setting were enough to improve my enjoyment of this brew.

One of the better pale lager’s out there. Easy to drink, and made short work of the 750ml bottle. I liked it, although I wouldn’t make it a regular stable.

Bottle, Honolulu: I should have kjnown this was from Down Under. Has the typical Australian/New Zealand hints of apple. Poured a light yellow with a thin head. Taste is mostly fruity, apple and grape. Decent session beer.

Yellow. Minimal head. Tastes a little better than normal beer. Grassy flavor, astringency and hoppiness create a slight bitter, dry aftertaste. Decent all around beer. Very cheap at $13.99 for a full case. Definately one of the best "cheap" beers you can buy. Complaints about skunkiness has plagued this product. I’ve had the skunky experience with Steinlager before. I have no idea why the company has chose to ignore this obvious problem. It’s killing their reputation. If you get lucky, and get a decent one, it’s actually a very good beer.

Bright yellow with a thick lasting head (maybe because I had to use a styrofoam cup and the bottle got shook up a bit). Aroma skunk first (green bottle), then very faint malt, then a little noble hops. Very little flavour but amid all the water and skunk, there’s a malty lager trying to get out. Low bitterness. Light body. Yellow beer.