Tinfoil hat time

The true beer adventurer checks out the cheapie Lithuanian cans in the supermarket, searching for any traces of that country's unique brewing culture sneaking through unnoticed. So it is with this pair from Volfas Engelman in Kaunas, purchased in my local supermarket for €2.20 a pop and both sporting natty metal headgear, presumably to keep the rat piss off.

I wasn't expecting an explosion of honey and sourdough from the Pilzeno, mind. "The bitterness you feel is from the old formula of various aromatic hops" is the epitaph-worthy inscription on the full-pint can. The beer itself is a wan pale yellow, mostly clear with a few suspended bits, and an approachable 4.7% ABV. It tastes, or at least feels, stronger: weighty and thick, like a märzen or bock. The flavour is simpler, however, being bready like a Dortmunder, low on hops and finishing quickly and cleanly, with only a trace of fruit esters. I deem it insufficiently hopped for a proper pils but it's still quite tasty. There's the satisfying filling quality of a stronger lager and... oh! I get a tiny pinch of honey right on the end, perhaps showing a little Lithuanian character after all. Your €2.20 goes a respectably long way with this one.

Beside it in on the shelf was Rinktinis, literally "Select". A little stronger at 5.2% ABV and altogether more polished looking: clear golden with a lasting head. It doesn't taste markedly different to the previous one, being a similarly weighty pale lager, emphasising its malt side with little contribution from the hops. The clarity means it's crisper than the other, but that comes at the expense of character: there's certainly no honey or fruit. It was heavier going and definitely harder to find things to say about.

Overall these are a solidly Germanic pair, not as interesting as I'd hoped but still worth throwing a handful of change at when you fancy a lager you haven't tried before.