Saturday, February 20, 2010

From Lithuania with sweetness

As I entered the local Vinomopolet outlet yesterday, I was looking for some bottles of Budvar for the weekend. Unfortunately, the shop was out of Budvar, and the shop assistant could tell me that the central Vinmonopolet warehouse in Oslo also was empty. Therefore they do not know when the Czech lager beer will be available again in the shop. For me that is no problem, as I am soon returning to Prague and can have draughted Budvar instead.

I looked around the Vinmonopolet shop to find a beer that I had not tried before. On one of the shelves some bottles of Lithuanian lager was making themselves interesting for me. Covered in some dust, it looked as if these bottles were not a popular choice among the Vinmonopolet costumers. Anyway, I picked up a bottle and brought it home.

According to the label, Svyturys Ekstra is the most popular beer in Lithuania. In the glass this is a pale lager that builds a nice lasting head. It is fizzy, and in the nose there is little aroma. In the mouth, this is a very sweet and medium bodied beer. There is also some maltiness and hints of grains. The aftertaste is full of sweetness.

I did not like this beer, and after several sips, Svyturys Ekstra got much too sweet. It was almost sickening sweet for me, and I would have liked it to have some bitterness to counter the sweetness.

I guess I have bought my last bottle of Svyturys Ekstra. This was a beer that I did not care for at all. If I want something this sweet, I would rather have a Coke or a Pepsi.

9 comments:

  1. That's the first time I've heard someone calling svyturys ekstra sweet! No way! Maybe little bitter, crisp, with a tone of citrus, but sweet? C'mon.. Are you really talking about ekstra? You should definitely buy another one. This is misleading...

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  2. Agree, I really wouldn't call Svyturys ekstra sweet! Actually it's very far from sweet.. Maybe there was something wrong with that bottle?

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  3. Thanks for your comments!

    I considered the Svytury's beer as sweet when I tasted it. The last few weeks, my local Vinmonopolet has been out of the beer, so I have not had a chance to taste it again. But I will give it another chance, as it might be a problem with the bottle I tasted.

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  4. Yeah, you definitely should give Svyturys Ekstra one more chance. Becouse it's obviously some kind of misleading ..

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  5. I have never tried Svytury, but it sounds like a problem with quality control at the brewery when the beer is described in such opposite ways.

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  6. I think the problem is not with the brewery quality control, as i know Svyturys quality control is pretty strict. I think problem was somewhere else.

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  7. A little update: I have not found another bottle of Svyturys Ekstra so far here in Norway. Therefore I can not comment on the beer again.

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  8. I foun Svyturys onlu this summer, when i was visiting Lithuania and i think it's amazing! First of all i've tried Svyturys "Ekstra" it was good, but then i found Svyturys traditional collection. There is dark beer called Svyturys "baltijos" and wheat beer - Svyturys "baltas, i just fell in love with tem. Actually Svyturys is one of my favorite beer from Europe now. So your comment about "Ekstra" really surprised me!

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  9. I have finally come across another bottle of Svyturys. This time the beer did not feel that sweet.

    Read my review here:
    http://beersagas.blogspot.com/2010/11/svyturys-round-2.html

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