Style: Porter
Brewery: Rinkuškiai Brewery
Origin: Lithuania
Size: 1L
Alcohol: 6%
Price: 60kr
Systembolaget: –
Rimantas Čygas established Rinkuškiai in at the end of 1990 together with his relatives Petras Kalkys and Sigitas Kalkys, with the first beer being produced in 1991. The brewery is the largest local capital brewery in Lithuania, one of the five largest breweries in Lithuania, and the only one of five run by a local brewery family. The beer is all brewed using water from the Rinkuškiai private 150m deep well. There aren’t many Lithuanian beers coming to these shores, so I thought we should pick this up and give it a go. The final verdict was that it was rather nice! This was paired with blue cheese.
This had a beautiful appearance, with the ruby highlights backing up the deep brown colour. The beer seemed to be medium in body topped with a thin beige head that clung to the sides of the glass. The aroma was light but pleasant, with hints of chocolate, roasted malts and nuts. The taste was a lot more full-bodied than the aroma let on, with the cacao bitterness balancing nicely with the sweetness of the malts and a hint of spice. The roasted dark bread notes came through in the aftertaste, with a touch of syrup backing it up. It had a fairly low carbonation, but that it wasn’t detrimental to the beer experience.
In general, this was a very nice porter. Light, easy to drink yet still full of flavour, this would be a great darker beer to enjoy in the summer instead of some of the slightly heavier porters on the market. The colour was delightful and really made you want to drink it. A great price and a great beer.