Bohemian Lager

Trader Joe’s Brewing Company

After a long week of work I am eager to open this Czech-style pilsner and give it a proper, uh, reviewing. It pours a golden blonde colour, light and very clear. Lots o’ bubbles. It is nice to look at, but I am more excited to get to the tasting part.

I smell wheat, and that slightly buttery aroma that seems to follow certain wheat malts around. Also, there is something fishy here. I don’t mean suspicious, mind you (some people who have been drinking with me will know I have a tendency towards this). Enough sniffing, though. Let’s get this one in me, yes?

It is sweeter than I expected, with a pleasant mild hop taste. It has a hint of that familiar European lager taste, but only a hint—the malt gives it more complexity. There is no sign of fish in the taste, thankfully. It is very carbonated, which gives it an exciting mouth feel (yeah, I said “exciting mouth feel”—savour it, kids).

The sweetness clings a bit to the aftertaste, which seems to cover over anything else that might otherwise be happening here. Overall, I find this sweetness a little bothersome, and I detect no bitterness at all. It is a good lager, and more interesting than some, but, ultimately, does not really impress me much. A decent quaffer at a low, low price (for those of you who live in the U.S.).

C+

Krusovice Imperial Lager

Krusovice Kralovsky Pivovar

lately, my beer consumption has slowed down a bit to make room for some of the selections from May's Okanagan wine tour. of course, when my apartment hit the 30C mark on the weekend, my drinking hand extended to the closest beer in the fridge and not the half bottle of warm red on the counter. luckily, a Krusovice, the oft-mentioned bottle that was initially purchased to get The Tippler rolling, was still holding down the fort in the back of my fridge. my other find from the depths of the icebox, was a pack of tofu that had expired 3 days after my birthday... which was in March. in celebration of tossing out my fridge's only conceivably healthy item, I lit the BBQ and threw on some sausages - the anti-tofu.

I knew right away that this Czech Pilsner was going to be different. when I think of Pilsners, I think of the light hues found in Pilsner Urquell or in Budvar/Czechvar, but the Krusovice poured darker than these. it had very lively bubbles throughout the pour and lasted the duration of the bottle, although the head scattered quickly after the pour. the Pilsner had an aromatic, almost botanical bouquet. this would be from the Saaz hops that are used to brew Pilsners (...that's a fuzzy recollection from my U-Brewing days). the Krusovice Imperial was as clean a lager as I have ever tasted, which was probably enhanced by storing it at my fridge's highest setting. the hops were mainly present in the nose, with no bitterness left for the aftertaste. overall, the taste was quite sweet - not fruit-sweet, more like corn-sweet - and became sweeter as the beer got warmer. I hadn't heard the term "session beer" until I read Big Love's St Ambroise Pale Ale Review (although my liver seems to be very familiar with this label). if ever there was one, the easy-drinking Krusovice Imperial Lager is indeed a session beer.

B