Not from around here

With the discourse all about the native brewing traditions of the nordic regions, it can be easy to forget that they make normal beers up there too. Today's subjects are from Lithuania, acquired in Irish grocery chain Polonez. The first two come from Gubernija, a brewery I last encountered in Vilnius, trying both traditional and mainstream examples of their wares. Here it's strictly lager.

Their Bohemian Pilsner began with an awkward pour, though the resulting stiff pile of foam was very handsome. Surprise one was that the body is slightly hazy, resembling a kellerbier more than anything, and not the bland industrial pils I was expecting. There's a pleasant grassy aroma suggesting classic noble hops, though the foretaste is oddly sweet, showing the spongecake and honey of a Helles, set on an almost creamy texture. Maybe that's the Czech stylings kicking in. The hops return in the finish, albeit gently, bringing more of a dryness than a bitterness. While not amazing, it's a pleasant sip: full bodied and satisfying, yet extremely sessionable at only 4.6% ABV.

There's no attempt at copying another nation's beer style with the plainly-named Classic Extra. Perhaps the one from Švyturys of the same name is the model. At 5.2% ABV it is indeed extra to the above. It's darker too, but still hazy. The aroma is metallic, in a slightly unpleasant way, while the flavour is extremely plain. You get glimpses of cakey malt, banana esters and a mineral rasp, but nothing distinctive and nothing that signifies good lager. The texture too is lacking, with none of the body that the Pilsner showed. If it's a Švyturys clone, it's a damning indictment of that brewery's ability. This is an entirely forgettable beer and it's almost hard to believe it comes from the same producer as the one above.

With the score at 1-1 we leave Gubernija and turn to Volfas Engelman, less of a stranger to these pages. I haven't been impressed by their efforts at cloning "world beer" styles, among which is the Blond witbier, reviewed here. Doubtless because of my review, they've had another go at it, so here's Blanc, and this time they have got the ABV right at 5%. The visuals are reasonable: it's hazy and yellow with a fine mousse on top. A striking lemon perfume comes off the surface, dessert-like but not unpleasant. So it's sweet, but it gets away with it. There's a somewhat artificial vibe to the flavour: banana foam sweets first, then a lasting finish, all white lemonade and cream soda. And yet it's clean; it doesn't cloy, and gentle carbonation is sufficient to lift the sugar off the palate. There's a pleasing pear-like crisp freshness. This is no classic witbier, but it has a charm, with its cheeky fun character.

Leaving the Extra aside, there's quality to be had from Lithuanian beers in Ireland. Here are two you can try when you're bored of the Czech and Belgian archetypes.

Lost in Lagerland

So there I was, as usual, standing in the supermarket wearing an expression of sheer awe at the variety of Eastern European lagers on sale. I suspect that the range from each country is in direct proportion to the number of people from that country living in Ireland, with Poland to the fore, followed some way behind by Lithuania then Latvia.

Sure, it's nice to feel at home when you're abroad, but do we really need quite such a range of 5-ish% ABV pale lagers which are so very similar to each other? It has me wondering if someone in the US or Britain is looking at a shelf full of Guinness, Murphy's and Beamish cans, and wondering why the Irish need so many thin dry nitrogenated stouts.

To give the prejudice above a bit more empirical weight, I bought a bottle each of the two most similar lagers and I'll be trying them back to back. Both are by Švyturys of Lithuania, and I've already reviewed the first, Švyturys Ekstra, back here, giving it fairly short shrift. The other is Švyturys Ekstra Draught: same strength, same price. Can it justify its place on the shelves as an independent entity by taste alone?

A bit more detail on plain old Ekstra first. It's a very sweet and sugary affair, but otherwise rather dull. The sweetness creates an illusion of high alcohol, despite being at the high end of normal at 5.2% ABV. According to the distributor's publicity, the difference with Ekstra Draught is that it's not pasteurised, which presumably means cold filtering of some sort. It's certainly not cloudy and comes out of the bottle paler than its sibling. The sweetness and the gassiness are also toned down, making it more palatable by making it taste of less. Are the two Švyturyses different? Yes. Can they justify their parallel existence? No. How about a dark beer in the range instead?

While I'm on the subject of cheap bottled lagers, I recently got a heads-up that Aldi were selling discount Spaten Helles and went along to pick up a few to bring me through this year's Six Nations. While there I noticed yet another eastern European import, their own-brand Staroslav lager from Bohemia, and I took one home to try. It has the rich gold colour of some of the better-known Czech lagers, but is severely lacking in flavour. The maltiness is there but toned way way down, leaving gassy carbonation as the dominant feature. Still, I don't resent the €1.48 I spent finding that out.

According to the last census, there were nearly twice as many British people living in Ireland as Poles. But do we see a proportional range of their beers in the supermarkets..?

Up the Baltic

I've never been very good with numbers, which is something of a disadvantage when dealing with the produce from St. Petersburg's Baltika brewery. I have a recommendation to try Baltika 10, but I can never remember that number when I'm in the field. So, I thought I'd hit the jackpot in Cork last week, bringing home a bottle of Baltika 9, but was disappointed to discover, to paraphrase Obi Wan, it's not the one I'm looking for.

It's not bad, though. It's another strong lager (8%) slighltly flat, with a full, bold, beery taste. Certainly much better than the very plain Baltika lagers, 3 and 7. The quest for the elusive number 10 continues.

In the meantime, while in that part of the beer world, I chanced a taste of Švyturys Ekstra, from Lithuania. I wasn't impressed and I can't think of anything remarkable about this one. Like the Zywiec, it's something you buy in its native country where the price is negligible.