Keisari Münchener
Nokian Panimo

Can. 8m to bb.

Foam dies suspiciously quickly, colour is way too light for a münchener.

Bad news continue in the aroma.. there is a bit of bready malt notes, but also caramel that just does not belong here. And then on the sides growing towards the admittedly short tail, some chemical/mineral/metallic alarm bells ringing. This does not mean there's much of aroma overall.

Perfectly predicted disappointment is an apt summary of the taste. If you need to know, it's obvious the malts merely give colour and cloying sweetness. Not a single grain of Munich here. No nutty breadiness. It is nothing short of amazing that they boast in their slogan on the can about the power of Finnish malt. I feel national shame. They also display the ingredients, which explains the result. "Dark ale" malt -- presumably Viking Dark Ale. Take a look at Viking's flavour and aroma profile for this malt and compare it to their Munich malt. That already shows that Nokian Panimo chose to use a malt that mainly provides colour and "sweet and cereal" notes. The cloying caramel is there to give body in a failed attempt. And their choice of hops looks like a strangely complex selection given that all you taste is coarse bitterness. That and soapy artifice to make you cringe.

Overall, this beer is fake. Call it amber lager for getting drunk and drop the boasting and you would have marketing matching the product. Calling this "Münchener" is doing the style no favours.

CAN: .5L. Appealing white & brown label design. Aluminum. Standard pull-tab. Best before date is this month.

Expectations are average. Served cold into a mason jar at low altitude in Kuopio, Finland. Purchased at a supermarket there. Reviewed live as a Munich lager per their website.

No bubble show forms as it's poured.

HEAD: ~2.5 inches wide. White colour. Frothy and foamy, receding fully within ~2 minutes, leaving no lacing. Could be fuller, thicker, and more robust, with more frothiness still.

BODY: Clear copper of above average vibrance. Clean, devoid of visible yeast or hop sediment.

It's a nice looking beer within its style, but doesn't look unique or special.

AROMA: Malts evoke brown bread. Munich malts, copper malts, rich caramel malt, and concomitant sweetness, with an odd leafy (almost vegetal) bitterness in addition to weird spices and some chemical off-notes. There's almost a smokiness here, artificial though it may be. What's going on? This is off in many different ways.

Aromatic intensity is above average.

TASTE: The third act has that atrocious leafy bitterness - which juts out like a sore thumb in this otherwise ho-hum Munich lager build. Malt backbone is too sweet, with too heavy a caramalt emphasis in addition to the usual requisite Munich malts.

Balance is horrid, with too much bitterness from the leafy off-notes and bothersome chemical off-notes bleeding into the already-problematic caramel sweetness. Vague metallic character is present throughout. I do find some interesting Vienna/amber malts, and a subtle (albeit artificial) smokiness, but it's not enough to save this.

A simple shallow brew so riddled with off-notes it should be in the BJCP off-flavour testing kit. Horribly constructed, with an annoying above average flavour duration.

Not liking this at all.

TEXTURE: Unrefreshing. Medium-bodied. Overcarbonated. Smooth and wet. Has too much thickness and heft on the palate, making this an almost syrupy brew.

OVERALL: Between the texture and the taste (which don't have any harmony), this is a beer I don't really want to drink half a litre of - let alone multiple litres during Oktoberfest. As such, it's a failure at its intended style, but that's the least of its problems. Severe issues with off-flavours make this worth avoiding. While I'll finish it with effort, it's far from a beer I'd buy again and the fact that it even made it to shelves reflects badly on the brewery.

Still, as it warms a bit, its malt syrups start lending more perceived sweetness, hiding the off-notes a bit. And aptly, it doesn't have any obvious yeast character or overt hop profile, so it's a bit closer to the style than its artificiality initially suggests. It's a deeply flawed beer, but I do acclimate a bit as I get deeper into the can. Badly executed any way you slice it, but not as terrible as my above initial impressions might indicate.

Low C- (2.53)