Vaalea Lager
Olvi Oyj

CAN: Aluminum. Standard pull-tab. 568 ml (i.e. imperial pint). Best before 05/02/16.

Served cold into a kitchen glass at low altitude in Kuopio, Finland. Expectations are low given its supermarket-brand marketing and price point (dangerously low by Finnish standards).

Reviewed live as a light lager per the label.

No bubble show forms as it's poured.

HEAD: ~1.5 fingers wide (~1 inch). White in colour. Nicely frothy, but not real creamy. Adequately full and thick, but not impressively so. Retention is average - ~2 minutes.

BODY: Body colour is a vibrant copper with honey hues. Clean; no yeast particulate or hop sediment is visible. Translucent and transparent.

Overall, it's an appealing beer in its style, and lacks the weak watery yellow appearance of most.

AROMA: Honeyed malts, clean barley, faint buttery notes, Munich malts, and mild generic floral hop character.

Aromatic intensity is average.

Suggests a beer with a generic build, with nevertheless a more interesting malt character than most light or pale lagers.

TASTE: Honey. Munich malts. Clean malted barley. Generic and minimal hop character. It's simple, shallow, and plain, with no flavours of any interest in its profile. To its credit, it's not watery or metallic, but it leaves much to be desired in terms of intricacy, subtlety, and nuance. I like it in a general sense, but there just isn't much to say about it.

Duration and intensity of flavour are average.

TEXTURE: Smooth, wet, overcarbonated, off-puttingly buttery, medium-bodied, and unrefreshing. It's an okay complement to the taste at best, but there's no harmony of texture to taste here.

OVERALL: A downable forgettable light/pale lager from Olvi. About what you'd expect from a supermarket beer. Cheap by Finnish standards, with what could be politely called "student appeal." I wouldn't get it again, but you could do far worse in the style.

C-