Karagandinskoye Svetloye
Efes Karaganda Pivovarinniy Zavod

 

I got this from the spouse of a colleague, who lives in that part of the world and was passing through Moscow. Standard brown half liter bottle with a white, black and silver label featuring a cool spread-winged falcon above the name. Label includes information in Kazakh, Russian and English (“Premium Beer”). Prominently announced on the label and the bottle cap is the fact that the brewery has been operating since 1958 – Efes certainly has not owned it that long. Karaganda is a pretty miserable medium-sized town in the middle of Kazakhstan, a spot in the vast wasteland of the Central Asian steppe. I’ve been once. I don’t think I’ll ever want to go again. Ingredients conform to the purity law. Best before 2/6/04, I opened it on 9/9/03.

The beer looks great. Slightly reddish tone to the deep clear gold liquid under an impressively big, thick, well-contoured head that displays good retention and leaves some nice lace lines about halfway down the glass. The nose is mildly malty. The mouth is prickly, but not excessively so, and slightly heavy. Given the positive notes thus far, I had high hopes for the taste. Dashed hopes. The taste isn’t bad, but there is a sour note to it that at a minimum turns me off. Malt struggles mightily to overcome this citrus sour note, and finally does win out in the finish. The aftertaste is therefore smooth, with just a hint of sour. Certainly not a bad effort, I could drink this on my next trip (yeah, right) to central Kazakhstan.