Steve: Unlike the other Gubernija that I've tried, this didn't taste like it was poured from a rusty drain pipe...just a regular drain pipe. It definitely had a weissbier flavor to it, but it had kind of a weak, sour, funk taste to it. At 4.5% ABV, you can do better with a Miller High Life, and their funk taste goes away quicker. Nothing against Lithuania, but they're O-for. I'm hoping it's just a remnant of the poor quality control process left over from the USSR. (8/16/2003)


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Steve: Rinkuskiai must be hands-down the best brewery in Lithuania. Possibly even in the former Soviet bloc (aside from the Czech Republic). Again, I had low expectations. The label shows a nude woman from the rear, with a lobster on her back, with the lobster tail covering her butt crack and the claws going up her shoulder blades. I expected this to be horrific, because the label is so disturbingly surreal, but what I got was a solid lager with a slight citrus background, and an imposing 9.5%abv in a half-liter bottle. There was also the nice pleasing taste of hops both in the aroma and the finish. Rinkuskiai, while having possibly the worst art/marketing department, has a very solid brewing team (either that, or their beer names are best read in Lithuanian). (5/2/2010)


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Steve: This was basically a half liter of crap. When I first saw this, I thought it was one of the Ridgeway Christmas beers (Very Bad Elf, Lump of Coal, Santa's Butt, etc). In reality, it's a Lithuanian beer, from the makers of Werewolf. Remember how I was worried that Werewolf would be crap? Well, here I thought this was going to be good, and instead it was poor. It was strong, but golden, not darker like a decent Doublebock. Although I guess it could've been a blond doublebock. It had a nasty metallic taste that kind of spoiled the experience. And the label was kind of gross. An elf was wedged between Santa's butt cheeks, as though Santa sat on him. Just pointless, from the time I opened it to the time I finished it. (1/17/2011)


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Steve: I was completely expecting this to be a Lithuanian version of a US malt liquor. I mean, come on, the name alone, right? Think Crazy Horse, King Cobra, and Werewolf. The label has a picture of a blended creature, the right half of the face is a blonde Lithuanian stripper, half wolf (the wolf part clearly hiding the radiation burns from working in an outdated unregulated nuclear power plant). The stripper part looks kind of pissed, like her boss just made her give a lap dance to a 400 pound mafia boss. It also says "you must be sure you wanna taste it," so I had very low expectations going in. What I found instead was a dark beer, full of malt, and as the label said, slightly sweet, reach (sic) taste of malt and slight aroma of hops." A definite diamond in the rough, compared to most Lithuanian beers I've had. It definitely raises your low expectations. (3/1/2009)


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Steve: Svyturys is not just the best Lithuanian beer I've had to date, but it's a pretty decent lager that holds its own with some of the better mass-brewed European lagers from Germany and the Czech Republic. I was expecting that metallic taste that I often sense in many Eastern European lagers from Russia, Lithuania, Poland, etc. but all I tasted was a nice malty lager that was easy drinking. It had a little more alcohol than average lagers, but it was very understated. (6/30/2007)


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Steve: Zhiguly is the name of a local mountain range in Lithuania, in addition to being the name of a car made by the former Soviet Union. There, now you can't say I didn't say anything nice in this review. I realize most of you have never drank beer out of a rusty iron drain pipe, nor have I. However, imagine what that would taste like, and you would have this trainwreck of a beer. At 5.5% ABV, it's no slouch, but you'd have to have 2 or 3 in quick succession to be able to forget you're drinking this stuff (comes in a half liter bottle, of which I poured half out). This had a STRONG metallic taste, like licking a penny or the aforementioned rusty pipe. And it stunk. A strong smell is usually nature's way of telling you to stay away. It works for Indian food, the smelly kids in school, Sandusky Ohio, my daughter's Diaper Genie, and this beer. Stay away. Considering Atlanta is not the hotbed of Lithuanian beers, it probably went bad, but I think I'll actually have to be in downtown Vilnius before I try this again. (10/13/2002)


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