Dutch Beer: Grolsch Premium Lager

Grolsch, is pronounced: Khrolsh or Chrolsh, in Dutch the "G" is pronounced similarly to The "kh" in Kharkov or "ch" Loch. The brewery was founded in 1615 Groenlo (Netherlands) and is currently located in Enschede (Netherlands). After Heineken, Grolsch is the second largest brewery in the Netherlands, and the 21st largest provider of beer worldwide.

Grolsch Premium Lager (aka Grolsch Premium Pilsner), has a 5% abv and comes in two types bottles (which I am aware of), I used a 330 ml bottle for this review. It is also available in a distinctive shaped bottle, known as the beugel or "the gurdle". These bottles have a swing-top cap with a rubber stopper, which eliminates the need for a bottle opener and allows you to re-close your beer. The export beugel bottles I purchased contain, I kid you not, 473 ml (47.3 cl or 15.99 oz), you can enlarge the thumb nail if you don't believe me!

Anyway... on to the review:

Appearance- Light yellow gold with a steady stream of tiny Champagne like bubbles. A nice white fluffy head with decent retention, It lasted for a bit, which shrinks down to a thinner layer of head.

Smell- Grain, hops, yeast, with a clean grassy and herbal scent. Maybe even a tiny drop skunky.


Taste- Smooth, crisp, grainy bitterness along with some sweetness and some herbal/medicinal notes.

Mouth- Nice carbonation and medium body.

Drinkablity- I enjoy this beer, I like its smooth-bitter-herbal/medicinal taste and I'd gladly have another one. I'd take this over Tuborg, Carlsberg ect...

*** (out of 5 *)

Czech Beer: Paka Pramen

Paka Paramen is a výčepní light beer brewed in the NovoPacké Pivo Brewery located in Nová Paka, Czech Republic. The ABV was only 3.7% and it came in a 1/2 liter brown glass bottle. Why do I stress glass? well if you go to their website you will see that they also sell some of their beers in a 1.5 liter plastic bottle. This struck me as strange, but hey, the Czech Republic is know for its heavy beer consumption and I guess putting beer in large plastic cola bottles helps facilitate this. I remember when visting Prague seeing advertisements for breakfast, brunch and lunch specials which included a beer, Gotta love 'em.

Appearance: yellow, golden, with lots o small bubbles. This beers retains its head only for a matter of seconds and then it quickly disappears.

Smell: very weak, sweet, hops, yeast, citrus.

Taste: It took a while until I could distinguish the flavors. The flavor was pretty weak, dominant bitterness, over ripeness and yeast.

Mouth: Over carbonated and watery.

The bottom line:

Although some of my favorite beers are Czech beers unfortunatly I did not enjoy this beer as much as Pilsner Urquell, Staropramen Premium Lager and Velkopopovický Kozel Pilsner. The smell and taste were dull/weak and there was a lot of yeasty bitterness as is expected from a Pilsner, but, not the kind which I enjoy. I don't believe that I will be trying this specific beer again anytime soon but I would like to try some of the different styles available from the NovoPacké Pivo Brewery.

* (out of 5 *)