"33" Export
Carlsberg Azerbaijan

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was not especially impressed with this beer, but it just got retired recently so I thought I would give it a shot before it was gone.
Pours a golden straw color with a think white head that sticks around a while. Pretty good lacing.
Smells like hops, malts, and some alcohol.
Has a good hop nose in the flavor with decent malts to even it out. Pretty good flavor. Balance was the key here.
Mouthfeel was fairly thin but with good carbonation to back it up.
Decent drinkability. Could put a couple down, no more.

The beer seems to be sort of a 'cult favorite'. Because of it's popularity (or notoriety) I figured I'd see what all the fuss was about. Turns out better than expected. Though there was no head retention to brag about, the beer had a nice 'active' carbonated look swirled around a bright, rich straw color. The aromas seem typically part-malt / part-grain in nature, but with very little off aromas. The beer promises cleanliness. Flavors confirm what was expected from the aromas. Malt sweetness, light apples, fresh Euro-hops; the beer is a pretty simple lager. The beer is firmly planted with malts (and probably some adjucts--corn), but the undesirables remain low enought to overlook easily. The mouthfeel is clean and crisp with a hint of dryness late. The aftertaste is basically nill. On par with a good Budweiser or a German Lager.

Hand-delivered from Baku to Moscow (thanks, Wayne!), this green half liter bottle features a red, white, gold and black label featuring the name in white inside a red circle that forms the center of a compass. No idea what the 33 refers to, as all of the back label information is in Azeri only. On the front, what's not in Azeri is in French, but doesn't help much. The ingredients list includes a word that looks an awful lot like sugar. Best before 8/7/06, I opened it on 4/22/06.

Pours a clear average gold under a 1.5 finger white head that fades pretty quickly to film, which then manages to linger. Oddly, there is no collar despite the film, and certainly nothing remotely related to lace. There's also almost no nose at all - just a touch of sweetish grain. The mouth is well-carbonated and just a tad heavier than water. The first taste impression is watery, then there's a shadow of bad watermelon and sweet grain. Hopes are here, too, slightly metallic, slightly dry, and slightly pleasant. There's not much aftertaste - vaguely bitter and that's a bout it. Not much here at all, really. Dortmund has nothing to worry about here.