Hooray for pints

I do like these one-pint cans you get from Volfas Engelman, even if the beer inside isn't always stellar. It's nothing fancy today, just a handful of traditional European styles which I'd guess they have the knack of.

Bohemijos is a dark lager -- dark red rather than brown or black -- and is a mere 4.2% ABV. The aroma is interestingly fruity, with subtle notes of raspberry and strawberry. The texture is full and a little sticky. It feels wholesome and nutritious; creamy, not fizzy. The flavour still has that summer fruit element, but it's subservient to milk chocolate, burnt caramel and a mild herbal bitterness. It's not spectacular, but it is pleasant and different to anything currently being brewed locally. And even though it's Lithuanian it does a great job of channelling authentic Czech dark lager, albeit not the top-tier variety. Despite the weighty texture, it's perfectly gluggable, making a full imperial pint the correct serving quantity.

From Bohemia to Bavaria, and weissbier is the next style that ponas Engelman offers us an interpretation of. Maybe I should have rolled my can of Balta Pinta as a Bavarian waiter would, because it poured very clear, and quite wan and pale looking, despite the respectable 5% ABV. The busy fizz is bang on style, and I had hiccups to deal with before I could tackle the flavour. It, and the aroma, are very banana indeed, which I suppose is fair for the style. The sweet banana of those foam sweets is discernible, as is the more serious brown and mushy fruit: a whole spectrum of just banana. This is workmanlike, with no real complexity or flair, but no flaws either, unless you're a diehard supporter of Team Clove.

A black tinfoil lid on the next can: pure classy like. It would seem there's a whole range of "Galaxy" beers from Engelman -- this is Galaxy Šviesusis: the basic pale lager, 5% ABV and an absolute middle-of-the-road macro-gold. It's pretty sweet, with the full bready thickness of a Märzen and edges of caramel and brown sugar. Thankfully it's smooth and lightly carbonated, so not a chore to drink despite this. I get very little by way of hop balance, merely the faintest echo of dried grass. This is nearly excellent, but the sugary tang lets it down for me. I'm not averse to a clean yet chewy lager now and again, and this is certainly that, if just a tiny bit unbalanced.

The final one is Tradiciškas, a full 6% ABV. It's still a pale lager, though. A little bit of craft haze suggests that "traditional" may simply mean unfiltered. Fair enough. There's a wholesome cereal aspect to the aroma, with a marmalade old-world hop buzz too. Initially, I found no outward indications of all that alcohol: it's light and easy to knock back. It is once again quite sweet, though, with a fruit salad of apple, mandarin and grape. No crispness. As it warms, the fruit ripens and the booze emerges, and when it started to turn a bit solventy I emptied the glass. That gave me the rosy glow I was expecting from something with this level of poke. This is neither one thing nor the other, showing aspects of plain pale lager and super-strength loopy juice without being either. At least it was cheap.

All are pretty decent takes on the central European styles they've set out to clone, if a little unbalanced on the sweet side. That does mean you need to like the type before you approach them, and for that reason I'll single out Bohemijos as the best of the set. On my next buying round I'll be looking closely for tamsusis on the label.