Brewery: Baltika Brewery, St Petersburg, Russia

Brewery Description: “A dark beer produced using caramel and rye malts. This combination of ingredients endows this beer with a harmonious hint of bread flavors and the specific aroma of caramel malt.”

Brew Style: Dunkel/Euro Dark Lager, 5.6% ABV

Recommended Glass: Dimpled mug, Lager, Stein

The Ugly Truth: The Baltika saga continues. This beer could cause Lenin to roll in his grave. I had this beer a few years ago in Sonoma, and I remember it being much better than this. When I said in the review for Baltika 8 Pshenichnoe that it tasted like someone had pureed a loaf of wheat bread with some lager I may have been exaggerating slightly. However, Baltika 4 literally tastes like bread. And not good bread either. We’re talking like day old welfare bread here. Man, did this stuff have one nasty, wierd-ass taste to it. I’m not even sure how to describe it really, but it was somewhere between skunky Budweiser and skunky Newcastle. Its mouthfeel was kind of chewy, and if you moved it around in your mouth it got worse. I did it once and nearly went into shock, it was so bad. This beer is fairly low on the bitterness scale, pretty mild in that regard. The finish was sharp, and really didn’t do much for the beer as a whole. So my advice is to not bother with this Baltika offering, but go for some of their other brews.

Verdict: Due to your crimes against the People, you have been sentenced to serve 3 out of 10 bottlecaps in the Siberian Gulag.