Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Svyturys Ekstra


'A crystal clear golden beer that crowns a glass with a frothy head of dazzling white. A deep hop aroma and a rich long lasting flavour that is underscored by a light, barely perceptible hint of hop bitterness.'

If there is any part of the world that enjoys cheap beer more than the United States? I thought about this the other day and came up with Eastern Europe. Luckily I live in Chicago, which is Eastern Europe's promised land and only had to traverse a few blocks to the Ukranian Village to find some insanely Euro beer. The girl behind the counter greeted me with Polish as I purchased enough beer for a weeks worth of entries.

I picked Svyturys first because it had the most promise- dark brown bottle, cool label and all forms of awards won in competitions (per the label). It sucks. The biggest problem I have with beers of this region (Lithuania in this case) is that they are overly malty and often taste stale. Svyturys is the poster child for this as it is a very bland and malty mess that tastes like it should have cobwebs inside it. Extremely boring and unappealing stuff, but it has a cool label! They also have a great website full of gibberish, linked of course.

Not Recommended, but its cheap at $5 for 4 pints! Still, I am sure there are better beers from Lithuania. Maybe.

5 comments:

Dead Rock n Roller said...

Svyturys makes a dark beer called "Baltijos" that I think is great (it comes as one bottle for like $1.50, regular price for halfway decent Eastern European beer here). I buy it regularly but I haven't had anything else of theirs.

Joseph said...

well my opinion about svyturys ekstra is way much better, i could say it's a pretty good lager , really worth a try, but you know everyone’s tastes are different, i would recomend you to try Svyturys ekstra draught it has a slihgtly hazy golden color with a white frothy head,fresh, almost fruity flavors,a faint lingering bitterness at the very end.Also there is Svyturys wheat BALTAS it's kinda light , has some citrus notes, hazy light golden color and sweet aroma. Overall my impression about Svyturys is thumbs up.

Jack said...

I would agree with Joseph, svyturys ekstra is pretty good euro lager, surely worth a try. And other beers of this brand are even better , my favourite is Svyturys Baltijos , really good dark beer .

Daniel said...

I like Svyturys Ekstra. it has good amount of bitterness and malt balance.Not yeasty and very refreshing. Very drinkable i could say.

Thomas said...

I found Svyturys beer only this summer, when i was visiting Lithuania and since then it's my favorite! Ekstra was really nice, i've tried it first. but then i found Svyturys traditional collection, it's amazing! Dark beer called "Baltijos" and wheat beer "Baltas". I just fell in love with those. I have tried lot of different European beer, but Svyturys is know my favorite. Wish i could visit Lithuania more often and drink Svyturys in Vilnius downtown pub or in Trakai!