Baltika Cooler

With a different opening mechanism, this transparent 500ml bottle was aquired in Altötting, low bavaria, during a visit to a friend. Transparent bottles require a special attention from the producer, once the beer suffers more from degradation by the UV light. Usually these bottles are covered with a thin polymeric protective layer to assure the quality of the beer.

Baltika Cooler is a Russian beer, part of the Carlsberg group (or is Carlsberg part of Baltika? I have to check this out...). It is a 4,7% lager beer, usually a refreshing type, to be drank very cold... I wonder if a beer that refreshes you instead of warming you up really attends the market needs in Russia...

Link to the producer: http://eng.baltika.ru/brand/0/38/baltika_cooler.html

Stary Melnik

Don't ask me to repeat the name of this beer... I don't even know if this is a beer! This 500ml bottle of a Russian "mixed malt beverage", containing 5,2% alcohol, was a gift from Andreas Pelzberger, it was carried in the car's trunk during our trip to Italy, and drank in Padua during a (friendly) poker game.

Although it is described as "mixed malt beverage" in the label, it tastes quite like beer... I won't discuss the quality of the drink here, it just intrigates me why it's labeled like this and what is mixed into it.

I was trying to find the link to the producer, but the lack of cirilics in my keyboard limitated my search... I only found a couple of other blogs that evaluate beers though I think they don't quite refer to the same beer, and a strange adaptation of a russian website.

Baltika 4 Original

4 Original is a 5,6% russian dark beer, produced by the Baltika breweries group, which owns several famous breweries, like Carlsberg and Tuborg. This 500ml bottle was aquired in Augsburg, during exams period, I was taking a walk through the neighbourhood for relaxing a bit from the studies, when I crossed by a small Russian supermarket.

Link to the producer: http://eng.baltika.ru/brand/0/3/11/4_original.html