Asylum granted

They're not taking sides in the off licence section of supermarket Polonez. You can still buy Russian beer but I recently came across a Ukrainian lager in the Mary Street branch: Obolon Premium, claiming to be "the first Ukrainian beer". Good for them.

It seems pretty standard macro stuff: a half-litre can of 5% ABV, brewed with rice. It's a medium gold with lots of fizz and a fast-fading head. The adjunct doesn't seem to have thinned it out any because it's very nicely full-bodied, properly süffig in the German way. In fact, although it's a little weak for it, I got certain Märzen vibes from it, delivering smooth cottage-loaf breadiness at the base of the flavour, adding a tangy green cabbage and spinach noble hopping on top. It veers a little into the high-strength cheap lager mode in the finish, with an off-kilter banana fruitiness and an unwelcome heat. Neither spoils it, though.

I know next to nothing about Ukrainian beer, but if this is the national flagship, it's a jolly decent one, and much more characterful than I was expecting. And if Polonez has a pipeline for Ukrainian beer (via Barry & Fitzwilliam, by the looks of things) I'd be very interested in getting more from it.