Krasny Vostok Extra
Krasniy Vostok

Krasny Vostok ExtraKrasny Vostok Extra
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From:
Krasniy Vostok
 
Russia
Style:
European Strong Lager
ABV:
8%
Score:
68
Avg:
2.38 | pDev: 23.95%
Reviews:
17
Ratings:
17
Status:
Retired
Rated:
Nov 11, 2009
Added:
Jun 18, 2005
Wants:
  0
Gots:
  0
No description / notes.
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Photo of drpimento
Reviewed by drpimento from Wisconsin

2.6/5  rDev +9.2%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 2
Typical for the style I guess. Poured with a small to medium white head and a little lace. Color is a clear gold. Flavor is VERY sweet. A little bitter in the finish. Syrupy body & standard carbonation. Not so good. Headache stuff. So, definitely not a session.
Nov 11, 2009
Photo of matt20102
Reviewed by matt20102 from Michigan

1.77/5  rDev -25.6%
look: 1 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 1
Wow- where to begin? Poured from bottle at refrigerator temperature. The colour is actually rather pleasantly golden for a beer of this strength- 8.0%. It would be a pleasant-looking beer if it were not for the floaters in the beer! Being a homebrewer myself, I am used to (and actually look for) beers with sediment; this beer (delicately stored and kept very still for several weeks) had about 3/4" of sediment on the bottom of the unopened bottle. This sediment was, apparently, spread throughout the bottle enough that the initial pour put this sediment into my glass. What's odd, though, is that the 'sediment' was really floaters- not grainy like typical yeast. To be honest, I'm nervous about drinking more than the few sips that this review calls for. While I don't detect any obvious signs of spoilage, I just don't trust it.

Appearance: Surprisingly light and golden for a beer of this strength. Would probably score this a 3 were it not for the floaters.

Smell: vague aroma of strong malt and not much else.

Taste: heavy, malty taste typical of cheap Russian and Polish beers.

Mouthfeel: see Taste.

Drinkability: 0. (floaters, remember?)

I won't buy this one again.
Aug 06, 2009
Photo of colts9016
Reviewed by colts9016 from Idaho

2.2/5  rDev -7.6%
look: 2 | smell: 2 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 2
The pour is an amber color with a thick white head. The nose is sweet malt and a slight hint of honey and hops. The taste is overtly sweet the mouth feel is medium body and an okay finish. I thought that this beer seemed like a cross between malt liquor and a strong ale.
Dec 12, 2008
Photo of morimech
Reviewed by morimech from Minnesota

2.73/5  rDev +14.7%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5
Pours a straw color with a small white head that has good retention. The head settles to a thick cap. Some lacing is left on the glass during consumption.

I smell sweet malt and what may be Noble hops. Seems to be a grassy and spicy lingering in the background.

At first it has a nice malt flavor. Typical Euro lager flavor but then there is a lingering aftertaste that is not very pleasant. Needs some hop bittering to balance this out. No alcohol detected. Maybe a touch of alcohol would not be a bad thing to clean out the sweetness evident in this lager.

Full body with active carbonation. Has a slick mouthfeel.

Not a horrible beer but it is not something I will seek out in the future. A little more hops would really help this beer.
Aug 16, 2008
Photo of MaltyGoodness
Reviewed by MaltyGoodness from Pennsylvania

2.23/5  rDev -6.3%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2
16.9oz bottle

Pours a golden straw color with a small white head that vanishes. No lacing to speak of.

Aroma is distinctively sweet and boozy with a light bit of malt and hops. Definite rice adjunct presence.

Immediately sweet, with a hint of malt and hops and a bunch of rice to follow. Finishes sweet, which lingers afterwards. Becomes quite boozy as it warms.

Full body, mild carbonation.

It seems to me that there should be a Euro/Russian malt liquor style classification, as that's all this beer is. It's cheap booze, plain and simple.
Apr 10, 2008
Photo of Thanby
Reviewed by Thanby from Ohio

2.65/5  rDev +11.3%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 3.5
A: Pours a slightly rosy clear gold with a thin head that dissipates quickly. Subsequently little lacing, small amount of fingering. Lots of active carbonation.

S: Smells like a decently hopped lager. This is the third Euro-lager I've reviewed and I'm coming to expect a certain smell from them. Nothing stands out too much, just grain and hints of spices that are barely too faint to identify. Possibly citrus.

T: Starts off slightly bitter but warms into a fairly sweet malt with hints of lemon, orange, caramel, and again a mix of spices I can't quite identify. I definitely think it could use a stronger presence for that, and the malt is possibly a little too sweet for my taste, but certainly not obscene. The initial bitterness is pleasant.

M: Light, but slightly sticky. Somewhat harsh carbonation. The high ABV peeks through in the aftertaste. Easy to drink though, and while I wouldn't recommend it as a showcase beer it's something worth trying just to see if you like it. Personally though if you want this style of lager, the same brewery offers a few better choices.
Sep 05, 2007
Photo of bluejacket74
Reviewed by bluejacket74 from Ohio

1.45/5  rDev -39.1%
look: 2 | smell: 2 | taste: 1 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 1.5
The beer pours a clear gold color with an inch white head. Head retention and lacing are both low. It smells like sweet malt and grain, and the aroma is very light, not good but not awful either. However the taste is very, very sweet, and that's not a good thing. It's so unnaturally sweet I can barely stomach it. I can't taste any malt or hops at all. The weird sweet taste just overpowers everything else. Mouthfeel is light and thin. Drinkability is low because of the taste. It just gets worse and worse with every drink. On the bright side, the alcohol isn't noticable at all. But this is just a really bad beer, I had to dump this one. I'd rather drink Crazy Ed's Cave Creek Chili Beer, at least I could drink a whole bottle of that. I don't know if this is just a bad bottle, but I don't plan on trying this one again anytime soon. Avoid this at all costs.
Aug 11, 2007
Photo of Drew966
Reviewed by Drew966 from Florida

1.6/5  rDev -32.8%
look: 2 | smell: 2 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 1
Red East Extra (aka Krasny Vostok Extra) pours a golden yellow with a thick white head from a brown half liter bottle. The aroma is mildly skunky and grainy. The flavor is malty, cloyingly sweet and has a nasty metallic bite at the end. There really are no redeeming qualities to this beer. Bad, avoid.
Jun 23, 2007
Photo of emerge077
Reviewed by emerge077 from Illinois

2.58/5  rDev +8.4%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2
A Russian friend told me this is one of the best selling beers in Russia, and that it tastes even worse than this import version. In all respects an average beer, but to it's credit, it's pretty inoffensive and not as harsh as some EPLs coming out of Russia, Poland, etc.

Pours a light yellow with good clarity, sudsy head of foam. Smells like husky grain with a mild sweetness. Taste echoes the sweetness, and it's not bad, but a little out of place. Not much hop presence, but slightly herbal on the finish. Cheap wine aftertaste. Prickly carbonation. After splitting half the bottle, we moved on to something else. "Red East" seems to be the import name, it figures largely on the label, just under the pair of snow cougars and the brewery coat-of-arms.
May 20, 2007
Photo of jmbranum
Reviewed by jmbranum from Oklahoma

1.84/5  rDev -22.7%
look: 2 | smell: 3 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 1
My first Russian beer.

Clear yellowish-golden color beer that looks quite a bit like an American macro. White head that quickly disipates into a dishwater looking coating on the top of the beer. The aroma is surprisingly malty and inviting, but unfortunately the flavor quickly ruins that positive association.

A very sweet lager. Too sweet for my taste. The botttle says this is 8% ABV, but I don't taste alcohol but rather just lots of sweetness. In fact the sweetness is so overwhelming that it reminds me of that sick feeling you get when you eat sugar by itself right out of the package. The aftertaste is sweet too, and frankly even the mouthfeel has a sticky element to it.

What else can I say about this beer? I'm sure there's hops somewhere but they are kinda hard to find in the midst of all of the sweetness. There's also a tiny bit of grassiness to the beer on the front of my tongue but then it gets overwhelmed by sweetness on the back of my tongue.

Overall, I can't say I would recommend this beer. At first it is passable but as I drink more of the big (16.9 oz.) bottle it just becomes impossibly cloying and difficult to swallow. Maybe it would be better ice cold.
Mar 27, 2007
Photo of BuckeyeNation
Reviewed by BuckeyeNation from Iowa

2.03/5  rDev -14.7%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 1.5
Lemon rind yellow with all manner of fine particulates and a fair number of bubbles. The three finger cap is a shade too bright to be considered ivory. It's nicely textured and doesn't leave as much lace as I'd like. The appearance falls within the broad range of acceptable for a beer of this style and is better than most.

Against all odds (I've had this brewery's Solodoff Classic and Snow Cougar), the nose is actually decent. For one thing, the lack of power assures that any offensiveness stays in the background. KVE smells like faintly sour grain and very little else. I'm amazed that no alcohol is evident.

Like the above offerings from Krasny Vostok, Red East is lousy beer. It's hard to figure how this nose can lead to this flavor. It tastes like harsh grain soaking in some sickly sweet syrup and a bottle of lower shelf vodka. It's all I can do to keep my upper lip from curling in disgust each time I screw up my courage and take a drink. Incredibly enough, I've still had worse.

The mouthfeel is difficult to properly assess since my brain is trying to sort through all the danger signals coming from my taste buds. It's light with a subtle viscosity and contains what I can only describe as poor quality bubbles. A mild alcohol burn on the swallow doesn't help.

Why Krasny Vostok Extra isn't called Red East is anyone's guess. It sure does make locating the beer for the purpose of reviewing a difficult task. Given the first two attributes, I thought I was finally going to get a decent beer from this brewery. Instead, I got 'three strikes, you're out'. Trust me, leave this one on the shelves.
Feb 19, 2007
Photo of gmfessen
Reviewed by gmfessen from Michigan

3.21/5  rDev +34.9%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
Poured from the bottle into a pint glass, beer is a clear, golden color with a thick, soapy, white head. The smell is sweet, primarily light malt and a slight whiff of alcohol. The taste is also quite sweet, with almost no hop presence. The alcohol is well covered. The bottle seems to have held up ok, but it's hard to tell with no freshness date. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with little carbonation. The overall drinkability of the beer is pretty good, but I could use some bittering hops to balance this one out.
Feb 11, 2007
Photo of dgallina
Reviewed by dgallina from Georgia

2.07/5  rDev -13%
look: 2.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 1
16.9 ounce brown bottle. No freshness date.

Pours clear yellow with little carbonation, no head or lace. Smells sticky sweet; full of caramel, sweet corn, vanilla, pineapple fruit, and heady alcohol vapors. Tastes revoltingly sweet; caramel, stewed corn, and alcohol intermingle uneasily. Finished by stinging alcohol burn. Body is syrupy and sticky, full and quite nearly flat. Could only finish 1/3 of the glass. An unmitigated disaster of a beer.
Oct 25, 2006
Photo of rodrot
Reviewed by rodrot from North Carolina

3.07/5  rDev +29%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3
This beer poured a bright gold color with a large head that faded quickly. Looks like a typical macro. Aroma was malty and fruity with just a little bit of hop in the nose. Taste was quite fruity and sweet with some hints of adjunct grain, alcohol and buttery flavors in the finish. Mouthfeel was fairly light bodied, even with the high alcohol level. Drinkability was OK. This beer reminds me of a US malt liquor, but with more malt character. A pretty good deal at 1.69(16.9 oz bottle) if you're looking for a cheap buzz.
Sep 24, 2006
Photo of RoyalT
Reviewed by RoyalT from Michigan

2.03/5  rDev -14.7%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 2
Appearance – This is probably the lightest orange I have ever seen in my life. It is literally translucent. The head came up well and went down quickly, which is typical of the style.

Smell – The grain and alcohol make up the bulk of this nose. There’s some orange syrup in there reminiscent of the color.

Taste – Oh, this tastes like flat soda pop. It is so much sweeter than one would expect. It’s almost like drinking sugar water. I can’t really taste anything else except the sweetish orange soda flavor.

Mouthfeel – This is very thin in the mouth with almost no carbonation and not a hint of alcohol.

Sinkability – I don’t understand the reason for drinking this beer.
Apr 15, 2006
Photo of TastyTaste
Reviewed by TastyTaste from Minnesota

3.05/5  rDev +28.2%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3
This beer is called "red East" on the label, but it does Krasniy Vostok Extra on it. Standard clea gold body, small white head, nothing special much about it. Grassy malt and light alcohol in the nose, that's about it. Taste has a lot of grainniess, and also some touches of adjunct. Very sweet, with the alcohol only confirming that perception. This is a pretty average SEL, there are many exactly like it.
Aug 29, 2005
Photo of NeroFiddled
Reviewed by NeroFiddled from Pennsylvania

3.41/5  rDev +43.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
Imported by AIKO LLC, Mount Pleasant, SC 29464. (www.aikollc.com)
16.9 oz brown bottle.

This European style, pale strong lager pours a crystal-clear deep gold body beneath a full head of big-bubbled bright-white foam that holds fairly well and keeps a solid half-finger head throughout almost the entire glass. Its lacing is limited, but it does keep a short wall just above the head, and it leaves transient splashes with each sip. And it's fast rising, effervescent carbonation adds to its appearance.

The nose offers herbal hops, a bit of husky graininess (almost like spent grain), and a touch of fruit; and some alcohol becomes clear once it warms a bit leaving it somewhat vinous.

In the mouth, it's medium-bodied with a bristling, effervescent carbonation.

The flavor is sweetish, lightly grainy, slightly winey (improper fermentation or bad choice of yeast combined with a touch of oxidation and alcohol), and well-balanced by a heavy smear of herbal/leafy hops and a solid bitterness. It's also slightly astringent and oxidized (but I have to give them the benefit of the doubt on the oxidation as I don't know the age of the bottle - there's no freshness dating). It finishes with a slap of sweet malt and lightly vinous fruit that fades to reveals some alcohol and then some leafy hops and a lingering, pleasant bitterness.

There's obviously some adjunct in this beer, but its not overly done; and its fermentation problems would overshadow that anyway.

In comparison to other strong Russian pale lagers, this is fairly decent. And in comparison to American malt-liquors, it's got alot of character. For those interested in Russian beers, it's worth trying.
Jun 18, 2005
Krasny Vostok Extra from Krasniy Vostok
Beer rating: 68 out of 100 with 17 ratings