Skopsko
Skopska Pivara (Heineken)

 

 

500ml can in Gourmet Fish & Grill (€4.50):
Translucent golden with some fine bubbles rising & frothy white head on top. Hay, light grassy notes & pale adjuncts on the nose but quite fresh. Citrus & grassy hop flavours next with earthy, pale malts & strong carbonation on top a thin, clean body.

 

Pours nicely with with crisp gold colour and nice head.
Taste is bitter, it is very refreshing on a hot day but drinking more than 2 is a chore.
I travel to Macedonia often and I usually went for Skopsko but the quality has gone downhill in the last year or two.

 

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint glass. Pours a medium golden amber with a big five finger white head with good retention and nice lacing. Aroma of grainy malt, light corn adjunct, grassy, mildly floral hops. Flavor is light, slightly sweet grainy malt and grassy hops; faint floral hop character in the finish with some adjunct sweetness. Flavor drops off rapidly in the finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. Labeled as a "Lager Beer" with no mention of pilsner, which is good because the hop, while having a traditional continental noble hop profile are light, less bitterness than even a typical American adjunct lager. Looks pretty nice and the flavor starts well, but then just drops off to faint hops and grain. I'd categorize this as a Euro lager rather than pilsner; perhaps the style has changed in the years since this was added. It does seem to be the same basic beer as this entry, named just "Skopsko". I wasn’t expecting much from a small country plain lager, but the flavor is quite attenuated even for that style, especially the finish. Apparently brewed under the Heineken umbrella, it's tame even for them. As usual for a bland lager, quite drinkable and inoffensive, but boring. Probably my only shot at a Macedonian brewed beer (this has 64% of the market there according to Wikipedia), but clearly a one and done. To their credit, it's a nice brown bottle, so no skunking noted.

 

 

 

 

Had this at a cookout at my Macedonian Orthodox Church. It's about as drinkable as a corona.

500 ml bottle- Poured into a pils glass:

Pours clear golden with a lasting white foamy head. Visible carbonation steadily rises to the top. Lacing sticks.

A whiff of sulfur/"Euro skunk" gives it an EPL character. That subsides, leaving grain and a floral character.

The taste is of some sulfur, with grain and a floral dry finish.

It is light-bodied with an appropriate carbonation level, making it crisp.

I would say this is on a Euro Pale Lager and German-style pils border. Not bad for an EPL - a bit lacking for a pils, but has enough traits to fit the style. Overall, it's an easy drinking brew. Pretty refreshing. Decent. (I might be slightly generous with the "overall" - almost gave it a 3.25 - but for what it is, I'm fine with the score I gave it.) I would drink it again if offered to me, but wouldn't seek it out. Meh...

Bottle thanks to Jeremy. Yet another bland euro lager, heavy on the adjuncts, and cereal grains. Pale golden with small bubbly head, musty, dusty, pasty,

 

A: Pours a clear slightly darker than medium yellow in color with moderate amounts of active visible carbonation rising quickly from the bottom of the glass and faint amber + medium golden yellow colored highlights. The beer has a two finger tall sudsy foamy white head that reduces to a medium to large sized patch of thin film surrounded by a large patch of very thin film covering the remainder of the surface of the beer and a medium thick ring at the edges of the glass. Moderate to significant amounts of lacing are observed.

S: Light to moderate aromas of cereal grain malts with a light amount of grainy sweetness and light aromas of grassy hops.

T: Upfront there are light to moderate flavors of cereal grain malts with a light amount of grainy sweetness. That is followed by light flavors of grassy hops which contribute a light amount of lingering bitterness.

M: Light to medium bodied with moderate amounts of carbonation. Slightly crisp initially with a light amounts of dryness in the finish.

O: Easy to drink with well hidden alcohol and relatively enjoyable - though noting about the beer really stands out and I'm unlikely to seek it out again.

 

A: The beer is crystal clear yellow in color and has a moderate amount of visible carbonation. It poured with a finger high bright white head that died down, leaving a layer of bubbles on the surface and lots of lacing down the sides of the glass.
S: Faint aromas of grassy hops and grainy malts are present in the nose.
T: The taste follows the smell, but has stronger flavors of grainy malts along with notes of grassy hops, the latter of which also contribute a light amount of bitterness.
M: It feels light- to medium-bodied and quite dry on the palate with a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: Apart from the weak smell, this beer isn't that bad for your basic pilsener. I thought that the best quality of the beer was its dry mouthfeel.

Serving type: bottle