Haywards 5000 Super Premium Beer
Shaw Wallace & Company Ltd.

Ok, so Kingfisher's "premium" beer was awful. I thought I'd try this one and see the difference, if any.
Pours a semi-haze pale yellow. Not quite straw color. Huge carbo-head, white and bubbly. Didn't last long. quickly settled to a film.
Aroma of stale bread, butterscotch, and alcohol. Not pleasant. Bad aftertaste. Thin, yet coating. A bit better than the aforementioned, but not my cup of 'tea'.

Very bland and papery with a strange salted pretzel finish.

Clear golden pour with a white cap. Aromas of booze and base malt with slight euro eccentricities, sweet corn, peach and apple. Taste is actually not bad, especially for style: peach and sliced clementine, apple, malt liquor base malt and light booze, hint of key lime, big sweet corn. Feel is light and high in carbonation, has booziness but more refined than expected. Paired well with chicken 65. The wife loved it

L. Slightly murky golden yellow, fluffy white head that doesn't last and leaves little tracing. Looks appropriate. S. I have a limited sense of smell and get very little off this. Maybe a touch of sweet grain, others have noted a metallic hint and there is certainly something behind the up front sweetness. T. Sweetish grain, although not as strong as some members note. I could definitely taste the alcohol and it doesn't help adding a slightly pungent note. F. Feels okay while drinking, light, drinkable and a touch of carbonation. O. In good conscience I couldn't give it more than 2.5. Interesting to see and try but not much else to commend it.

 

 

In my ongoing quest for a not-sweet lager with ABV over 8%, I decided to slum it with this 7% swill out of curiosity. This is a shiddy, shiddy beer with nothing to offer. Color is off, like it was squeezed from a wet cardboard box. Smells like barfed up Frosted Flakes, and the flavor delivers on that promise. Sweet and reprehensible. The alcohol flavor and the cool label on the bottle are its only redeemable qualities. I rarely pour beer down the sink hole, but there this one went. Insert some nonsense here about time spent traveling in India, and watch the score for this bile water magically increase.

 

 

This shit sucks.

 

 

 

This is basically just malt liquor. But it's the best of the limited choices at my favorite Indian restaurant. Sipping it while eating some delicious Chicken Korma and naan, it does the trick just fine. If I'm paying $6.50 for a 650ml Indian beer, I at least want to get a little buzz out of it, so the 7% ABV here checks that box. With strong-flavored food, a lighter-flavored beer can be quite complementary. I wouldn't seek this out on its own merits, but pour it down the sink like some of you have threatened? That's just cray-cray.

 

Nice appearance, golden coppery color with a two-finger white head that left a bit of streaky lacing. There was an odd metallic thing going on with the aroma, and this stuff tasted like sweet corn soda. Alcohol was almost undetectable. BA classifies this as an American Malt Liquor. I classify it as undrinkable.

Haywards 5000 has a thin, white head, a clear, yellow-gold appearance, tiny, white sediment specks, throughout, and some sheet lacing left on the glass. The aroma is of honey-topped white bread, green apple, white bread crust, malt, golden raisin, and rice pudding. Taste is of those elements, with sharp alcohol notes (think of V.S. brandy), some grain husk, honey, corn, and a touch of low-level, rounding hop bitterness. Mouthfeel is medium,and Haywards 5000 finishes crisp and enjoyable.

RJT

 

This is my first review in the BA style called American Malt Liquor.
One and done.
This beer was bought by SAB Miller because it presumably had penetrated the market share of a nation of 1 billion people (even though they don't drink much beer.)
They deserve better.
I hope someone opens a craft brewery in India and saves those innocent people from this stuff.

This is the only beer from India listed in the "1001" beers. While the series tries to be global, the editors should have searched India for something better than this.

 

 

 

 

 

A: Pours a crystal clear medium yellow in color with moderate amounts of active visible carbonation rising from the bottom of the glass and moderate amounts of medium golden yellow highlights. The beer has a three finger tall dense foamy white head that reduces to a few patches of medium thick film surrounded by a very thin film covering the remainder of the surface of the beer and a thin ring at the edges of the glass. Light to moderate amounts of lacing are observed.

S: Moderate to strong aromas of corn adjuncts over the top of sweet malts. That is followed by a light aroma of grassy hops and a moderate to strong aroma of fusel alcohol.

T: Upfront there is a moderate to strong flavor of sweet corn adjuncts and some light to moderate sweet malts. That is followed by a very light flavor of grassy hops and something perfumy & metallic. Finally there is a moderate to strong flavor of fusel alcohol which lingers through the finish.

M: Medium bodied with moderate amounts of carbonation. Slightly slick with a hint of alcohol warming in the finish.

O: Reminds me of drinking this on my visits to Bangalore where it seemed to taste much better, though that could be because of how hot it was... Here in America, it is pretty tough even when having it with Indian food. Definitely not the smoothest drinking malt liquor.

 

 

 

Served at an Indian restaurant from 22-ounce bomber into a copper Cup. Light brownish color hard to tell in the cup. Small amount of head quickly fades leaving a small cap and some clingy lace. Nose is extremely sweet. Grassy and malt liquor smell. Taste is similar. Very sweet best served cold. Mouth is thin with not much viscosity. Definitely better with food than solo. Overall not bad but neither is it very good.

I bought a bottle of this to go with the food at an Indian themed dinner at my neighborhood's swim & tennis club. It went OK with the food, but a lighter lager might have been better. The Haywards tasted like malt liquor but lighter on the palate. I kind of appreciated the lightness but the taste wasn't great as I wasn't quite expected malt liquor flavor.

 

 

Strong, was not good, would rather have had a lighter bad beer... wasted ABV.

 

 

2015-04-01
22oz (650ml) bottle served in a large mug. MFG date is 23/02/15. Batch number is 311-8P. Traveled here from India in a friend's suitcase. Still not deeply familiar with the malt liquor category.

Pours clear golden with lots of carbonation and a moderately sized but sickly looking head. Smell is pretty skunky, but with some nice grass notes. Strong lager funk and yeast.

Taste is (please note, I am mentally preparing myself for godawful sweetness based on my last Indian malt liquor experience)...godawful sweet.Honey and corn syrup. Strong skunky aftertaste. Grassiness is detectable, but insufficient.

Mouthfeel is not too bad. A little thick and sticky. Overall, it's not good. I won't finish it. I may have a few more sips before throwing in the towel.

 

 

My bottle of Hayward's 5000 was overly sweet with hints honey and bananas leading the way and lingering. The head was small and white with a foamy appearance and the body was clear and gold. It felt syrupy with a small amount of soft carbonation.