Doctor Diesel
Pivovariya Ivana Taranova

 

 

 

 

 

 

.5 L can, Moscow. Falls somewhere between a pale lager and a malt liquor. Since in Russia they have to list ingredients on the labeling, I've made a game of seeing how far down the list I can go until I find "сахар" (sugar). Not a hard search on this specimen. Thin canned beer head, pale yellow color, little bit of lacing in the glass. I guess the best I can say is that it’s a decent slamming beer. Drink it fast and you won’t have to think about it once it’s done.

Picked this one up in a ghetto liquor store in south Atlanta just because of the name. Pours a nearly-clear golden color with a stark-white, foamy head that stays around for a long time (at least for an adjunct lager). Aroma of cheap lager - adjunct malt, corn, no hops. Palate is sickly-sweet, with the cheap malt blending into a metallic aftertaste. It packs a punch, though; I started feeling this one in my head after the first sip. Thin mouthfeel is nothing to be impressed by. Skip this one.

The cultural meccas of Moscow, New York City, and Port St. Lucie, FL are often associated, but when it comes to beer ? I find it intriguing that the three hometowns of those that have reviewed this beer so far are the ones mentioned above. How does that happen ?
Big brown Euro bottle. Label has a gear on it with "Doctor Diesel" in big block letters. Appearance is a dull cloudy yellow. I've seen a better head on lettuce. Wilty off white, and left in a hurry. Smell was an odd combination of wet grass and metal shavings. You begin to wonder if this stuff is better used inside an engine than a stomach. Taste is heavy, bready, and sour. Slight bitter hop presence. Wierd slickness. Clumpy lumps show up later after the beer settles a bit. Mushy grainy and sweet butterness also show up on the finish. Hard to finish, even tougher to have another one.

Very pale amber with a distinct haze. Aroma quite harsh, but I've had worse - a bit solvent-like but hops are in there somewhere. A few hops in the taste but not that distinctive; pleasant enough though. Quite a dry finish but not as much flavour as I would have liked, but the low carbonation levels are a bonus as far as I'm concerned. This one brewed and bottled by "Company PIT" ( ! ), Kaliningrad, Russia, according to the label.

This product is actually contract brewed by several regional breweries, but goes under the Taranov name. The one I had was brewed in Kaluga. It poured a clear gold with a decent-looking white head that disappeared a lot faster than I would have expected. The smell is sweet, with a touch of alocohol. The mouthfeel is heavy and sweet. The initial taste is sweet malt, but the alcohol is pretty evident. There's a fairly decent hoppy finish, but the aftertaste is more sweet than bitter. Sugar is an ingredient. Not as awful as it's name would make you think, this is a decent malt liquor.