Gubernija Zigulinis

Aroma: 5 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

April 2002: That's right boys - when in Lithuania, have some "alus". This is the standard brew. Feels right when you get it in the dark brown cafés of the old town of Vilnius or Kaunas - hardly elsewhere.

Aroma: 3 | Appearance: 3 | Mouthfeel: 3 | Flavor: 3 | Overall: 3

First of all I have to say, that I've had far better Lithuanian beers before. This lager is really pale yellow, almost like water. Much foam, but dissapears fast. Taste is like color, waterish...

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 4 | Mouthfeel: 4 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 4

Sampled from bottle. Pours clear yellow-gold with a thin, scattered head. Pour carefully - there is much sediment. Aroma is dms with faint spicey hops. Flavor is balanced and mostly flavorless with just a hint of adjunct-layden maltiness and a bit of hop spice. Light-bodied and well-carbonated. No need to import this crap pale lager to the US - we have plenty of our own.

Aroma: 2 | Appearance: 2 | Mouthfeel: 4 | Flavor: 2 | Overall: 2

Me and this beer got off on the wrong foot. Pours cloudy, and by cloudy I mean unclear with some of the grossest looking twigs and branches floating around in there I have ever seen, yellow with a short, fluffy head. Stinks of sewage and skunk, with topnotes of lemon. The flavor is actually as bad as the appearance and aroma (how could it be worse). So metallic and dirty. I hated this beer. It's possibly the worst I have tasted.

Aroma: 3 | Appearance: 2 | Mouthfeel: 4 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 4

Jeez, this will teach me to carry cash with me when I buy beer.... "Que?", you ask? Well, in order for me to use my credit card to buy a six-pack of Stone IPA, I had to have a purchase of at least $10.00. So, on a whim, I grabbed this odd looking green bottle with an ugly yellow label (with some goats starring at each over a beer barrel, no less). I knew this would be pretty bad, since I've had piss-poor luck with beers from Lithuania in the past, and as such it came as no surprise that this was, well...., pretty lame.

Soda-pop fizziness that quickly disappears, leaving behind a harmless looking urine-colored liquid. This impression was reinforced with the aroma, which smacks of rotten grass (you know, when your loser drunk of an older brother mowed the grass, but didn't bother to empty the lawnmower bag? Yeah, it's kinda like that).

Things actually take a turn for the better after the initial first impressions. A hint of malt, some sort of mystery-hop character, et al. Not enough to be overally enjoyable, mind you, but enough to prevent me from posting my lowest review so far, at least.

"Yes Virginia, there are worse beers around...."
//TB

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 6

At first this is not the right name of this beer. We Lithuanian don't use Russian names to our production, the man who added that beer hould notice that!!! Its Gubernijos Zigulinis. Anyway it is not perfect. A little too watery, no really expressed flavor, no original taste, not good lager, on the the other hand it is quite drinkable, but not with great pleasure. Zhiguly is Russian car model. In Soviet Union it was the prima car, that's why brewers put such name on beer (silly soviet influence). Nowadays in Lithuania only Gubernija (and I don'y know why) still produce the beer with this name (only taste is worse). But anyway we us NO Russian words. Sorry for that... My national feelings were infringed.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7

Not much too this. Blonde with a decent head. Not much nose. Easy smooth drinking at the ABV. For the $ CHEAP and much better than generic malt liquors in the same price range. $1.29 half liter. Can't go wrong.