European Beer Challenge #28 Slovenia

STATS

  • Country: Slovenia
  • Style: Czech Pilsner
  • ABV: 4.9%
  • Serving Type: 500ml Can
  • Price: Cheap!!!
It’s been a few days since I posted on here and it’s good to be back on the European challenge. This is a country I have had the pleasure of visiting and from what I remember their beer was actually quite good, and you needed alot of it, it was incredibly humid!
I had sampled the Lasko Club previously and also had Union, while in Ljubljana so know a fair bit about Slovenian beer. Naturally when I saw this I thought to myself I have to try this, and the guy at the shop says it’s a fantastic beer. A good recommendation however he also thinks Carling Black Label is a good beer, best served warm…
The Zlatorog looks excellent except for the uncharacteristically small head for the style. In any pilsner I would like to see at least a 3 finger head, especially a Czech style pilsner. Other than that though the colour is an excellent golden hue with lots of carbonation rising to the small white head. The small ammount of head, has good retention and laces the glass very nicely. I’m quite impressed with the look of the beer, however more head would be nice.

The aroma of this beer really surprised me! It’s really very crisp and fruity on the nose, and has a strangely tropical edge to it. This comes from the hops which have a passionfruit aroma. There are also some grassy hops present. The malts in this beer smell cleaner than many other similar beers from the region, you can tell this beer is of a higher quality than any of the others I’ve had from the region. Hopefully it tastes as good as it smells!
What an incredibly refreshing beer! Lasko have produced a beer that has far exceeded my expectations after drinking their other much more average beer. All the ingredients used in this beer must be of a much higher standard than other beers from the region. The hops do have a slight passionfruit flavour they are a very strange variety, which I have never had before. It’s very crisp and incredibly drinkable, good thing I’ve got a few more!
In my opinion this is one of the better mass-produced (well all things are relative) national beer brands. The Slovenian’s have close to the perfect beer for their hot summer months. The 4.9% isn’t excessive, the beer has low-medium carbonation, which allows for mass consumption and of course this excellent flavour. I think this is one of the best beers so far in this challenge and at only $2.40 for a 500ml can I’ll be stocking up before it sells out!

Remember it’s always Beer O’Clock somewhere in the world!