Tatra (Poland)

Tatra (Poland) 5.5%

Pale gold in a glass with a fast fading head. The aroma is honey with an ever so slightly burnt, nearly acrid touch and faint pilsner-like dry Czech hops. Honey continues in the flavour as does the bitterness - in fact it has quite a bitter aftertaste. Tatra is a sweet pilsner with honey and biscuit flavours at first then followed by a bitter, slightly acrid, finish. Despite being slightly acrid it is not terrible but it's not great; however, considering how cheap it is, it is better than I expected. There is just something about the bitter finish that is a bit off to my taste.

Bia IPA - Birrificio Del Ducato (Italy)

Bia IPA - Birrificio Del Ducato (Italy) 6.5%

Full gold in a glass with a slight haze. The head faded fairly quickly leaving minimal lacing. The aroma is sweet, honey and grain with hops that smell of tropical fruits: papaya, nectarine and maybe some peach.

The taste is quite sweet with touch of candi sugar and caramel while still having a bitter bite and finish. To my taste this beer is heavily loaded with drying hops that you would expect in a pilsner or European lager; there are, no doubt, other hop types used as well since the hops character of this beer features more than dryness and some hops spice but also subtle tropical fruit flavours. However, this heavy use of pilsner hops stands out to me because its use in an IPA in conjunction with other types is interesting and I can't quite think of another beer that does it to this extent. Combined with the sweetness of this IPA, the hops come across as more nectar than resin with faint fruity notes of peach and tangerine that remind me of a zinfandel wine. Bia IPA is an interestingly subtle IPA that still packs in the hops but is different from those North American IPAs that tote loads of cedar and resin flavours.

Euro Life Lager - Big Rock (Canada - Alberta - Calgary)

Euro Life Lager - Big Rock (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 5.0%

Crisp dry hops aroma, pale gold and crystal clear in a glass. A touch of the grain I associate with Big Rock. Dry hops taste just like a Euro Lager, not musty probably because it's fresher than any actual European Lager you could get in North America. They aimed to make a Czech style pilsner and they did a great job - they nailed this style.

Martens Pilsener (Belgium)

Martens Pilsener (Belgium) 5.0%

Gold in a glass with a surprisingly large frothy head of foam. Malty taste but sweetly thick with a touch of dry hops. Just an ordinary Euro lager - not much to it but a touch thick on palate and quite sweet.

Stonewell Light - Cool Brewery (Canada - Ontario - Toronto) 4.0%

Stonewell Light - Cool Brewery (Canada - Ontario - Toronto) 4.0%


Pale gold in a glass with a big white head of foam that fades quickly. An aroma of grain with a bit of creamed corn (DMS) a bit of either Euro Lager dry hops or just skunk from being light struck. The flavour is kind of creamy and buttery with some grain but so much skunk from being light struck that I can't say I really pick up on the "squeeze of lime" much at all. In a weird way the skunk and the butteriness kind of work together. Beer geeks aren't likely to pick this up anyway so who cares if it has lots of what are strictly considered off-flavours. Stonewell Light isn't so bad for a bargain light beer and maybe because it at least, unlike most big brand light lagers, it tastes like something.

Kostritzen Schwarzbier (Germany) 4.8%

Kostritzen Schwarzbier (Germany) 4.8%

A dry hoppy aroma with a bit of sweetness and a darker malt roast tone that dances between molasses and wooden tones. The beer is black, nearly opaque. Good head and lacing.

The taste is mild considering the appearance but darkly roasty, closer to coffee grounds than coffee, quite bitter with a Euro Lager dry hops flavour. Easy drinking, quite bitter moderately sweet. No alcohol flavour which some people find unpleasant because it's only 4.8% but the dark roasty flavours and bitterness are often associated with stronger beers - it is a little like low alcohol Yule Beers in that way. Pleased it came in a (stylish) 500 ml bottle as it is quite nice and I was glad to be able to top up my glass. Definitely worth trying: an interesting style well executed.

Guinness Black Lager (Ireland) 4.5%

Guinness Black Lager (Ireland) 4.5%

True to its name it is indeed black, just about opaque too with a head that is just a shade paler than beige. The aroma is sweet with some roast, something distinctly lager-like and some dry Euro hops.

The taste is a little like any other European Lager but with a bit more bitterness and quite a bit more malt character. There are tastes of roasted malt and some smoke tones. There is a caramel note kicking around in there too. All in all Guinness Black Lager is a pretty nice Black Lager: refreshing and clearly a lager but with a more interesting makeup.

Lezajsk (Poland)

Lezajsk (Poland) 5.5%

Gold in a glass with some lacing as well as a frothy head that fades quickly though not as quickly as some lagers. Lezajsk also has a malty and sweet aroma that has a more robust and rounded malt character that many other Euro lagers. A malty flavour with a bit of toasted bread, slightly sweet, moderately bitter (for a lager) with a lingering, bitter (for a lager) and ever so slightly toasted aftertaste.


Not a beer that is going to 'wow' you but I think it's a bit of a stand-out from an uninteresting class. If you like Euro Lagers on the bitter end of the spectrum Lezajsk is worth trying. I always recommend local brews rather than imports but if you're in Poland or you are going to buy an imported lager (like Grolsch) anyway pick one up, you may like it better. If, ceteris paribus, I had to choose between Lezajsk or any of those North American megabrew international lagers I'd have to go with the Lezajsk as it has more depth of malt flavour, a better balance and a better level of overall bitterness.

Corona Extra (Mexico)

Corona Extra (Mexico) 4.0%

Lightly malty taste and aroma with some dry hops. Corona is actually much like a pilsner in that respect despite the fact that it seems like you may actually have to slap the lime or lemon out of the bartender's hand to get a Corona without a slice of citrus and yet that never happens with a Euro lager or a traditional pilsner. Not bad for a light beer but why not go for a beer with a bit more substance.

Euro Lagers - Part 5: The Rest

Being the truly universal beer, lagers are produced in just about every country of the world. In this final part of my five part Euro Lager Saga (tm) I present six Euro Lagers from five countries in Europe not known for their beer production. Although their countries of origin may not be known for their beers and Euro Lagers are not the most titillating style, the last three are actually quite good (especially Kronenbourg 1664)!

Zubr (Poland) 5.6%

Dark yellow gold. Tastes of musty melon, it is sweet and not bitter. Somewhat unusual taste for a lager. Great copy-writing on the back label and a really cool bottle cap.

Viru (Estonia) 5.0%

Gold is a glass. Malty and fairly bitter for a lager - somewhat musty tasting. Thicker on flavour than a typical international lager but bland compared to any other style. The bottle is really cool though, and I quite like the bottle cap.

Peroni (Italy) 5.1%

Smells a little bit malty. Really carbonated and tastes of... barely anything. A little malty, barely hopped at all. If you want your beer to taste like nothing at all this beer is for you... or if you just want its cool bottle cap. Otherwise I would suggest you save yourself for a beer with a flavour.

Birra Moretti (Italy) 4.6%

A dry hoppy, slightly malty aroma. Gold in a glass. Quite a malty flavour with sweetness and toasted bread as well as a hint of caramel and all balanced out by lightly dry hops flavour - not very bitter but just bitter enough to make Birra Moretti work. A very nice Euro lager when it is all said and done.

Mythos (Greece) 4.7%

Quite skunky aroma - likely due to the light green bottle and UVB. A dry, light hops aroma typical of Euro lagers; a little musty perhaps due to age. The taste is mostly of that same dry hops flavour, though in Mythos it is bordering on wood tones with a hint of smoke. A bit of a tang and some spicy also from the hops. Lightly malty and probably more bitter than sweet. All in all, not a bad beer it's quite refreshing because it is dry rather than sweet and would probably pair well with spicy foods and lots of other kinds of fare. A fine Euro lager. Pale gold in a glass with a good head of foam.

Kronenbourg 1664 (France - Strasbourg) 5.0%

A sweet malty aroma with a touch of dry hops bitterness and a fairly strong banana and white grape juice smell too. More flavour to this beer than I expected from a Euro lager: it is still predominantly sweet malt but with a few lightly roasty hints and a bit of dry hops, but also plenty of that same white grape juice and some perfumy herbal characteristics make Kronenburg 1664 much more complicated than other Euro lagers. My refrigerator can be a little cool for ales and higher alcohol beers but the low temperature suits a lager like Kronenbourg 1664 just fine. I don't suggest giving it a few minutes to warm up. Gold in a glass with a good head and nice lacing. I was actually worried it might be flat when I opened it not much gas escaped when I cracked open the can. However, that was only because the can was very full (I might have an extra 5 ml) so there was very little room for gas to accumulate.

 In case you missed it, here are the earlier Parts to this Euro Lager Saga:

Euro Lagers - Part 1: The Czech Republic
Euro Lagers - Part 2: Scandinavia
Euro Lagers - Part 3: Germany
Euro Lagers - Part 4: Belgium, the Netherlands and Austria

Euro Lagers - Part 4: Belgium, the Netherlands and Austria

While hardly representative of Belgian beers, Stella Artois is a large part of Belgium's export market. It is included here with a trio of Euro lagers from Holland and one from Austria.

Stella Artois (Belgium)5.0%

A pronounced mix of sweet maltiness and dry hops. The result is a sweet moderately bitter lager that is refreshing and characteristically well balanced. There is also a detectable skunky off-flavour, that comes about due to the use of a green bottle which doesn't block UV-B the way a brown bottle does. Though technically an off-flavour I feel the skunkiness adds to the balance of the beer by forming a bridge between the malt and the dry hops.

Hollandia (The Netherlands) 5.0%

A somewhat yeasty, grain aroma. Full gold in a glass. Malty and quite bitter. A slight metallic alcohol flavour which is surprising for a beer that is only 5.0%. A generally unremarkable beer but not bad.

Grolsch (The Netherlands) 5.0%

Its characteristic flip-top bottle is a favourite of home-brewers (read: favourite of mine) and has also seen service as a bottle for homemade hot-sauce. The beer itself is gold in a glass. It tastes quite bitter for a lager with a dry hops flavour. A pleasant and typical European lager.

Heineken (The Netherlands) 5.0%

A creamy malt aroma with a bitter touch of dry hops and a splash of something skunky despite the fact that this beer came in a half-litre can and not a green glass bottle. There is also banana in the aroma. Gold in a glass with perfect frothy head.

The taste is sweetly malty, chaulky with a distinct but not overpowering banana flavour. Not very bitter at all and not much of the dry hops flavour I get in the aroma, as a result Heineken seems to be more like a North American, rather than a Euro, lager.

Stiegl (Austria - Salzburg) 4.9%

Such a warm sweet malty scent. The aroma doesn't carry over that strongly into the flavour. Quite bitter, hoppy. Has barest hints of apple and nut. Yellow, fizzy, highly drinkable and more bitter than most lager/pilsner types; although it is bitter without a sprucy hops punch like an IPA, there is still a bit of hops character to go along with the bitterness and fizz. Also, the old-style design of the beer can is quite likeable.


 In case you missed it, here are the earlier Parts to this Euro Lager Saga:

Euro Lagers - Part 1: The Czech Republic
Euro Lagers - Part 2: Scandinavia
Euro Lagers - Part 3: Germany

Euro Lagers - Part 2: Scandinavia

Regular readers will know that my blog really got going during half of a year I spent in Norway (Norwegian Yule Beers). Here are a few other lagers and pilsners that I came across during my time in Scandinavia.

Fredrikstad Pilsner (Norway) 4.5%

Thin tasting, a little sweet (a kind of honey sweet) but very mild. It tastes lighter than 4.5% and isn't bad. However there isn't much to its flavour, good or bad. Cool label.

CB Pilsner - Christianssands Bryggeri (Norway) 4.7%

Thin but with a strong malty taste. It's unique but not terrible good: the flavour is one-dimensional and the beer is not very refreshing.

Dahls Pils (Norway - Trondheim) 4.5%

This is a dreadfully thin beer. It tastes of beer flavoured water with a hint of cardboard. The redeeming qualities are few and far between: it is cheap for Scandinavia and it has a nice looking bottle cap. Avoid this one.

Lundetangen Pilsner (Norway) 4.7%




A very sweet beer with a malty aftertaste. It's a little too sweet to be properly refreshing but in general not bad.

This beer is brewed by the Aass brewery but the recipe is from the now defunct Lundetangen brewery who's demise bankrupted the father of Henrik Ibsen, Norway's most famous playwright.

Nordlands Pils 4.5%

Nicely drinkable with a bitter (and delayed) aftertaste that I didn't mind. Somewhat sweet but definitely a solid Euro lager/pilsner. At 15.90 NOK it is on the expensive side of local beers but only by a few dozen cents per bottle.

Tuborg Green (Denmark - Copenhagen) 5.4%

A surprisingly lively pallet for a pilsner: a little bit fruity, a little sweet, a little bitter. Lightly carbonated and lightly, sparkling gold in a glass. Refreshing but mostly unremarkable.

Tuborg Pure Gold (Demark - Copenhagen) 5.5%

A dry hoppy smell. That hops character comes through in the flavour as well as sweet, smooth maltiness. This beer is a lovely gold (who would have thought Tuborg Pure Gold would be gold coloured!), well carbonated with a moderately bitter finish. All in all Tuborg Pure Gold is quite smooth, fairly refreshing though quite malty and is, on the whole, well balanced.

Gull (Iceland) 5.0%

A warm somewhat sweetly-toasted bread taste with a somewhat bitter aftertaste for a lager.

Viking Gultur (Iceland) 5.0%

A very ordinary international lager, slightly more malty and bitter than average.






In case you missed it, here's Euro Lagers - Part 1: The Czech Republic.

Euro Lagers - Part 3: Germany

Germany is known for the Bavarian Purity Law (one of the older trade barriers) and its lagers (the word lager means 'storehouse' in German) and most of them taste very similar to each other. For that reason I am starting this post with one that tastes better than all the rest.

Hacker-Pschorr Munich Gold (Germany - Munich) 5.5%

Full gold in a glass with a malty and sweet aroma tinged with a dry hops halo. The taste is bitter more than sweet and has a very dry hops taste than nearly masks the malt. A perfect pilsner style lager which should come as no surprise as all the Hacker-Pschorr's products that I have tried are of top quality (their Hefeweisen is truly wonderful). Because it's so much a true pilsner, people who prefer their lagers yellow and fizzy but bland probably won't like: it really is quite bitter. Oh and it comes in a cool (and very useful) swing-top bottle.

Beck's (Germany - Bremen) 5.0%

A lightly malted, slightly skunky lager (green bottle!) with a dry hoppy tone and a hint of spice. A nicely drinkable European style lager.

DAB (Germany) 5.0%

A malty aroma with more than a touch of dry hops. A sweet malty body with a watery mouthfeel with a dash of dry hops and a slightly bitter finish. The taste is sweeter at first than the average Euro lager but the dryness of hops prevents DAB from tasting too sweet, the end result of which is a slightly sweeter but mostly average Euro lager.

Wernesgruner (Germany) 4.9%

A very pale beer with a full frothy head. This beer, brewed in accordance with the German purity law of 1436, has the dry hops flavour I associate with a pilsner. It is quite bitter though otherwise a fairly mild malt flavour and sweetness. Not any surprises in this half-litre can, this beer is very typical of german pilsners: bitter and generally ordinary.

Warsteiner (Germany) 4.8%

Light gold colour in a glass with a malty smell. Musty very bitter taste, hoppy but not sprucy at all. A good lager taste and good with food because the bitterness clears the palate nicely.

Lowenbrau Original (Germany - Munich) 5.2%

Yellow and fizzy, obviously European with its dry hops flavour (not to be confused with beer that has been dry-hopped). A little sweeter than a Grolsch. Somewhat malty, a little bitter. A rather plain pilsner all-told. Drinkable but not remarkable.

Krombacher (Germany) 4.8%

Very pale gold in a glass. A bitter classic European pilsner with its trademark dry hops flavour. Some grain malt flavours also, and some sweetness but more or less a typical pilsner. Very pleasant and easy to drink but not exotic by any measure.

Bitburger (Germany) 4.8%

Malty sweet aroma with more than a hint of dry hops. Also a light fruity touch of something like white grape juice. Pale gold in a glass with a good frothy head.

A nice dry hops taste with plenty of bitterness and some light malt flavour. Bitburger is really quite bitter and as such would pair nicely with food and is nicely refreshing.


 In case you missed it, here are the earlier Parts to this Euro Lager Saga:

Euro Lagers - Part 1: The Czech Republic
Euro Lagers - Part 2: Scandinavia