Igazi Csíki Sör
Csíki Sör Manufaktúra S.C. (Lixid Project Srl.)

 

 

 

 

 

Is this a pale ale? I thought while drinking this beer. The legend and the reality about it is just overwhelming: there had been beer brewing present in Transsylvania since the Middle Ages but was oppressed by the communist regime in the mid-20th Century. During the years of Romanian Democracy a university student picked up the ancient recipe and brewed it again - this was the Igazi Csiki Sör, the Real Beer of Csik, that achieved an immense popularity and became an awarded craft beer in Hungary as being the best brew of 2015.
Despite all of this (or perhaps due to this) Heineken, the owner of the romanian Ciuc brewery of the same region took them to court for calling themselves the "real beer of Ciuc". However, due to the support and originality, Csiki sör won and Heineken lost their lawsuit against the small brewery. Since then, the beer is labeled "Tiltott Csiki Sör" (the banned beer of Csik).
First of all, both looks and taste is amazing: they follow the simple recipe of yeast, barley and hops without any additives and pasteurization. It is extremely fresh! The smell of hops is intensive and the beer is amazingly smooth, almost not bitter at all, quite dry in finish. It is somewhere between a czech pilsener, an american adjunct and an american pale ale - best of all words!
I can say with confidence that this is the best Hungarian beer and perhaps the best Hungarian original style traditional craft beer. We have great American ales, IPAs and so on made in Hungary but this is an amazing brew for all tastes and all occassions. I love American IPAs but am very proud of this beer being Hungarian and being this outstanding. If anyone wants to try Hungarian beer, I recommend this in the first place!

 

 

 

I drank it for the first time in Ciuc, its production hometown. if cool, it has a good bitter-sweet taste, strong and acid, very definite. it is a fresh, cooling taste, similar to the pilsner traditional beer. i would place it in the middle rank *3, like krusovice or german DAB. it seems a bit higher rank than tuborg, but less than pilsner urquell. it is better than most romanian produced beer, as the factory's capacity is not industrial.

 

Clear golden color with white head. Fermented grain smell with some alcohol notes. Taste is quite clean, just some pale malts and some generic bitterness towards the finish. Body is light and carbonation is high. Nothing interesting here.