Kalnapilis Export
Kalnapilis (Kalnapilio-Tauro Grupe)

 

 

 

 

This brew pours a light gold color with a puffy white head. It’s an average-looking brew, but has a nice head. The aroma is sweet and soft, with a mix of cereal grains, grass, and light malt. There’s very little hops in the aroma, which was also the case with much of the taste. It’s sweet and grainy, with a little herbal hops in the finish. It really didn’t have much balance, and had a notable adjunct quality. Medium mouthfeel. Simple and uninspiring.

I really didn't know what to expect with this beer, but it had come recommended to me from a friend in Lithuania.

It poured with a lot of head but then quickly dissolved the color was that of an amber/apple juice color. It was very cloudy, it reminded me of cider.
The smell was ok, it reminded me of strong malts. The taste was the best part of this. it was very bubblely yet smooth at the same time. I would def recommend this to anyone Lithuania offers some really good beers.

Lemony gold with sheets of fine bubbles that have now slowed to a few vigorous streams. Given all the carbonation, I'd expected a bigger head (two fingers) and more persistence (only minutes). The dirty white cap is now a lumpy disk and has graced the glass with almost no lace.

The nose is just okay. It's mostly sweet and grainy with a minimum of stale mustiness. While it isn't a particularly inviting aroma, it's one that I can live with.

This is actually okay beer that manages to distinguish itself from most of what comes out of Eastern Europe. It does so in the simplest way possible: ingredients. In particular, by using enough of them. The beer is well-malted and has a pale malty sweetness that is all the more agreeable because there's enough weight on the hoppy side of the scale to balance things out.

The flavor is more bold than anticipated, with a great interplay between sweet and bitter. I'd even go so far as to say that it's firmly bitter, a definite plus in my book. Most beer from this neck of the woods is on the bland, uninteresting side. Kalnapils Export is anything but. There are no accessory flavors to be had, just lightly toasted grain and bitter noble hops (with spicy and grassy notes most prominent).

The body/mouthfeel is a good match for the flavor. The generous quantity of malt ensures that flavor delivery occurs all the way through each mouthful and beyond. In addition, the abundant carbonation (why such a lousy head?) is welcome in this case since it livens up an already lively flavor profile.

After pouring and smelling Kalnapils Export I was less than impressed and figured that it was just another lousy European Lager. I was wrong. It's the best of the three Lithuanian beers that I've had to date. Not a hugely impressive accomplishment, I know, but try this on for size. It's one of the few former Soviet bloc beers that I'd actually consider drinking again.

I am drinking a 500 mL bottle, served chilled, in a Three Philosophers goblet.

Appearance: The beer pours a light yellow color, clear with no visible sediments. It has no head and little carbonation.

Smell: The aroma is very light, almost nonexistent. There is no discernible malt or hop presence (although I am guessing that they are there).

Taste: The beer has a slightly sweet taste, maybe as a result of corn or other adjunct. The malt character imparts a moderately full flavor that lingers in the mouth. Overall, it is very inoffensive on the palate.

Mouthfeel: The beer sits nicely on the palate, nothing good nothing bad to say. Unfortunately for this beer, water sits on my palate in the same way.

Drinkability: The abv is low (5.4%), so it is a good beer for sessioning.

decent head that fades fast but the lacing holds its own. Pale yellow to transparent. Large bubbles roll to the top sparingly.

Definately pick up a corn husk type smell with a malted backbone. Really grainy and boring smell.

This is a chore to drink. Its clean but almost to a fault as everything up to the finish is ugly. Corn husk / grain / adjunct body with a quick malt sweetness that is washed away instantly by some acidic lemon/bitter finish.

notes: Yikes! avoid at all costs. Imagine a budweiser with a lemon wedge on the edge of the bottle and throw in some extra grain.

Pours a hazy yellow beer with a bit of white head.

Smell is a bit of malt and some spicy hops and the scent of a Belgian pale ale, coriander and a hint of orange peel.

Taste is malty and a little sweet with a creamy mouthfeel at the beginning. Fairly bitter herbal hops kick in after a while. Very quickly become a very herbal and bitter beer.

Mouthfeel is just average.

Drinkability depends on whether you like strong brews towards the harsh end or refined balanced beers, this one is harsh. I can't see myself buying this again, just not that great.

Hazy light yellow body. Head pours out to almost nothing, just a thin skin of bubbles on top of the beer. Smell is crisp with grassy malt and a light breadiness. Taste is also full and pleasing, malt is all very crisp, grassy malts are present, but in check. This is the way a euro lager should taste, no biting acidity, no skunky off flavors, just a crisp and very drinkable lager. Very sessionable.

Fairly clear golden hay color with a small white cap wavering down quickly to a thin collaring. Lacing is minimal to none.

Clean aroma of light bready pils malts. Slightly doughy with a rounded bread crust and carries a softly paled sweetness from the malts.

Taste is fairly mild here. Average at best with low riding malts lending a pilsner-like malting lending only the smallest favor to breadyness and sweetness. Partially fluffy on the palate and tongue with very easy going low ended carbonation. Clean and quick with an adequate lager base and dryish finish floating off with a very light enducing white bread crust. Mild and average all around for this one. I wouldn't call it light, but its definately not medium or weak. Not bad really. Clean and a touch frothy on the malts adding a bit of character to its standard tastes. A good drinking lager that easily could hit the spot after a long day or perhaps before moving on to more brain bashing brews.

Sampled 6-1-05, Lithuanian beer. Pours hazy straw color, full white head and nice lace on the side of the glass. Nose is big, jumps right out at you and carries slight citrus and grassy notes. The flavor is what you would expect with the nose, citrusy and grassy with some malt in the background. Very light and fizzy on the tonque in the intro and then syrupy and the eventually dries out. Drinkable, no major flaws, just not very good.

Pale straw, uniformly semi-hazy, almost a greenish cast. Head is very white and rises to only 1/4 of an inch briefly. Delicate small dots for lace. Papery aroma, slight sense of hop oils and lemon. Light body and fizzy in mouthfeel. Malt profile is weak, showing aspects of wet cardboard and old walnut skins. Finishes with a green tea-type of impression, bitter but drawn out and not helped by the continued abundant carbonation -- slightly unsettling in the swallow. Eh, can't say this one is a favorite of mine.

Poured a lazy golden yellow color with a decent lager head, fairly carbonated. Not much in the aroma, clean, and a bit grainy. My intial taste detected the hops more so then the maltiness. Fairly bitter with a clean, crisp finish. Pretty decent beer, but not one I would be actively seeking out. As good as any American macro I think.

Pours a cloudy golden body, with a two finger white head. Enthusiastically carbonated, leaves very thin sparse bits of lace.
Aroma shows apricot, sulfur, and lightly toasted malt.
Lemon and spice in the taste, lightly toasted malt, earty and grassy, a little buttery. The buttery character grows with warming.
Light and crisp, quite dry

Tall brown half liter bottle with foil around the neck and a gold and white label dominated by writing. There's just a little pyramid above the name, with a bottle inside the pyramid. Ingredients include "beer products" (huh?). Best before 5/13/04, I opened it on 3/8/04.

Pours a slightly hazy light gold under a 1.5 finger white head with a good bit of body and very nice lacing. The nose is very mild, with just a touch of smooth malt. The mouth is medium carbonated and light in texture. There's not enough flavor here - a touch of malt to start, a hint of hops to close, but an utterly watery aftertaste. There is nothing at all bad here, but it is much too thin - glorified water.

This beer pours a gloomy looking dirty golden. Its aromas are sweet and exhibit a malty raisiny odour that is not that pleasant. The mouthfeel is flabby and lacking in zip. This beer tastes sweet, raisiny, metallic and even vegetal. I may have an off bottle, but I don't even want to fool with retrying this stuff. I made it past five sips, and now to the sink. Nasty stuff.

Hmmm Lithuanian beer. This one pours a semi-clear yellow-orange, almost peach color. Not much head to speak of, and not much of a smell either. I detect some grains and some lawn clippings. Taste is smooth, some cereal flavors and some hops, I detect a very subtle hint of apple. This beer really coats the mouth for a lager. Not bad, but not great either. Worth a try.

Now Quaffing: Kalnapilis

This beer pours a clear straw yellow, with good clarity and a thick white head that lasts for several minutes. There is little lacing as the head recedes to a thin clumpy layer. Nose is sweet with little hops to be found. Taste is a little sweet with some grains and a light bitter/dry aftertaste. Overall a very enjoyable offering from Lithuania.