Gold Honey Beer (Медовое Золотое)
Umanpivo

Golden color.Big, white head. Malt, honey, vegetable, and basement in aroma. Sweet taste with notes of honey. Light bitterness in aftertaste. Needs to be "cleaned up".

500ml bottle. Poured out a clear, golden amber color with a small, khaki-colored head of foam. It left sudsy sheets of lace. It smelled of honey, caramel, toffee and some malt. Nice honey sweetness with caramel and a very mild bitterness.

 

Brilliantly clear deep gold, white head, not much retention, no lace,
Smells like honey and fresh plain donuts
Tastes of honey, a little bit of pepper, bready malt, tastes sweet but finishes dry
Light bodied, med-light carbonation.
Really good

This was a VERY pleasant surprise amongst a massive drop-off by local, in-person trader @tone77 who I thought was just CANming by for a pick-up of his own to help me clear some much-needed space in my reefers. I am cowed & shamed the depth & breadth of what he dropped off & I am working to formulate a plan to make adequate recompense. In the interim, I am reviewing his Bottles (eek!) first, this one included. I am a sucker for Cyrillic on a beer's label & an even bigger sucker for beer with honey as an adjunct.

From the Bottle (ooh!): "Umanbeer 1878".

I Pop!ped the cap in order to start a slow, gentle C-Line pour into the awaiting glass. I scoured the brewery's website, but I was unable to substantiate its identification as a Lager. I have reached out to the importer to see if they can offer anything further, but I wanted to give the beer every opportunity to put its figurative best foot forward. It actually cascaded beautifully to form two-plus fingers of foamy, soapy, rocky, tawny head with modest retention. Color was an oh-so-slightly-hazy Golden-Amber (SRM = > 5, < 7). Nose was unquestionably of honey, plus a bready maltiness. Mmm. Mouthfeel was thin-to-medium, not watery, but not far removed, either. The taste was sweetish with a bready-honey quality that reminded me of my late-maternal grandmother's baking. She would take bread from the oven & set it on the windowsill to cool while drizzling honey over it! I used to live for her meals, especially in the Summer when the breeze would waft the scent into the yard where I was reading comic books. This struck a nice balance as far as its sweetness was concerned. The Notes make it seem as though the honey was added post-fermentation, which could account for its not being at all dry. It was not overly sweet, but if you might be expecting a dry, mead-like beer, you will be disappointed. Finish was semi-sweet, restrained while still maintaining the honey flavor. Color me at least enthusiastic! YMMV.

Poured from a brown 16.9 oz. bottle. Has a copper color with a 1/2 inch head. Smell is of honey, malts, a bit of sweetness. Taste is the same as the aroma, highly refreshing. Feels medium bodied in the mouth and overall, I have had some not so good beers from the Ukraine, but this one is a solid beer.