Maharaja Premium India Pilsner - Associated Breweries & Distilleries Ltd.

Monsteruss

Colorado

4.22/5  rDev +52.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 5

The foam was light wheat/ white in color. The color was a nice honey pils. The smell was crisp and clean with a nice hoppy feel. The taste had a good hops overtone with a fruity undertone and wheat highlights. Mouthfeel - smooth and crisp. Drinkability - easy going down.

Serving type: bottle

04-16-2009 18:37:37 | More by Monsteruss

RBorsato

Virginia

4.1/5  rDev +48%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

Tasted on 04/08/06 at Oasis Indian Restaurant in Chantilly, VA.

Typical pale yellow pilsner appearance and body with nice carbonation. I know everyone here made fun of the Belgian Brewers reference on the bottle but all I could think of was how the aroma and flavor had a light Belgain Pale Ale/Single character to it. A nice touch.

The best Indian beer I've tried to date. Unique character, refreshing, crisp and clean, and perfect with a spicy Lamb Vindaloo.

The bottle served at the restaurant was about or over a year old based on the bottling date but it was not a problem at all... I'd definitely order this beer again, and again ...

Per Label: OG 1042-1048. ABV 5%. "Technical expertise of Belgian Brewers"

(11 oz. / 330 ml)

Serving type: bottle

06-29-2006 21:00:16 | More by RBorsato

Offa

California

4.08/5  rDev +47.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

This is pretty good and definitely in the tradition of a German pilsner, which it clearly seemed to me.

Golden, it has a medium white head that steadily shrinks to a thin top and ring.

The aroma is rather flowery with grain, honey, bread, pine and a grassy hint.

The taste is quite German with the first sip being mostly strongly herbal and grassy hops with bitterness, soon tamed with sweet bread cruast and grain and a hint pf pine bringing up the rear. It soon mellows and melds together, with a malty, lightly bready sweetness underlying the dominant and aromatic herbal-grassy hop bitterness.

Serving type: bottle

05-22-2008 17:12:50 | More by Offa

GratefulBeerGuy

New Hampshire

3.9/5  rDev +40.8%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

11 Fl oz. bottle > 16 0z. SA glass ($1.65)
MFD: 03/07 Batch No. 35 US

Pours out a very clear pale golden color, very active with large bubbles and a creamy, bubbly 1/2" deep head. Retantion is very good for this style with mild lacing.

Smells of honey-soaked doughy bread with tangy yeast and sweet grapes. Banana, vanilla and lemmon. This is much more aromatic than I remember from the few times I had this at several Indian Restuarant's.

This is a very flavorful Imported Pilsner with a honey-bread with corn type malt flavor with subtle wheatie attributes. The balance is sublime as the sweetness mellows on the palate a blast of slightly fruity and earthy yeast notes and dried herbs but also zesty hop finish. The complexity was a big surprise.

Very light bodied, very crisp, clean and refreshing, finishing a bit dry.

I'm just going to have to agree to disagree with the rest of BA on this one, I found nothing very cheap about it except the price. I was actually expecting much less but was happily jazzed after.

Serving type: bottle

03-28-2008 22:17:17 | More by GratefulBeerGuy

DaPeculierDane

Wisconsin

3.85/5  rDev +39%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3 | overall: 4.5

I don't know why this beer has gotten such a bad rap. I found it to be delicious and perfectly matched with moderately spicy Indian cuisine.

My bottle was manufactured in june of 2004 but ths bottle wasn’t at all skunked or past its prime.

The overwhelming odor and taste was apples, loads and loads of apples. It reminded me very much of Luxembourg’s national brew, what’s tha tone called again?

Anyways, this beer just was loaded with wonderful fruit and floral aromas. I could smell Belgian hops in it, I think. At any rate this beer shared some characteristics of a few lighter Belgian brews that I’ve had.

The appearance and mouthfeel were typical to any macro pilsner.

Very good. Better than Taj and the Horse in my book and as good, but different from the King Fischer.

I will definitely order this one again when I return to the wonderful Maharaja restaurant on Madison’s East Side.

Serving type: bottle

10-25-2005 04:46:03 | More by DaPeculierDane

RonaldTheriot

Louisiana

3.84/5  rDev +38.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Maharaja Premium India Pilsner has a medium, foamy head, a clear, yellow-golden appearance, some bubble steams, and a bit of lacing left behind. The aroma is of sweet, full, and pungent barley malt, biscuit, grass, and bread dough. Taste is of bready malt, charcoal, grass, sourness, a bit of green apple, and a faint hop bitterness at the end. Mouthfeel is light and watery, and Maharaja Premium India Pilsner finishes crisp, clean, refreshing, and mild. Overall, this is a good beer, and it’s worth a try.

RJT

Serving type: bottle

02-10-2013 15:07:08 | More by RonaldTheriot

pmcadamis

Illinois

3.73/5  rDev +34.7%
look: 2 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

Ok, so India is not exactly known for it's beer scene but this just looked pretty cool so I had to pick it up.

A - Bright yellow...like someone milked a highlighter into a glass of water. This is crystal clear and topped with a very thin cap of tiny white bubbles. Nothing but a slightly thicker collar is found around the edges of the glass...no lace at all.

S - I have never, in my beerxperience, smelled anything remotely like this. It smells like some sort of weird spice mingled with some bizarre exotic fruit nectar. It smells a lot like an Indian friend's house after they have cooked a large meal for guests. It's a very pungent and unfamiliar smell, and it makes me think of my favorite Indian restaurant in town...there is something (I have no idea what it's called) served there that is intended as a garnish or topping...it's dry and flaky, and sort of like what we would think of as that red pepper stuff you sprinkle on pizza. Anyhow, this is what I'm reminded of.

T - Wow. This is a unique brew! Spicy, herbal, exotic, and odd. This is amazing stuff, but not in the traditional beer sense. This is almost like another beverage entirely. There are some Saaz hop flavors....quite pronounced actually....so I see why this is listed as a German pils, but I'm almost thinking this should be under the "herbed/spiced beer" category.

M - Light, crisp, and refreshing with an extremely dry finish...all qualities that should definitely be found in this style of beer. The lingering aftertaste of weird fruits and herbs is intriguing, and I think that this is definitely well suited for spicy Indian cuisine.

D - One of the strangest beers that I've had in a while. I thought that it would be a pretty basic macro lager and boy was I wrong. This tastes like a good German pils with added Indian spice. Good stuff IMO!

Note: I have a major problem with this 11oz bottle BS. Where is my extra ounce? It seems like a lot of Belgian and other European beers (Germany and England aside....they like their bottle BIG) are shorting us with 11 ounce beers that cost the same as, if not more than every other 12 oz beer out there. What gives? Is this just due to their standard of 330ml being a nice solid number? I know it's not a big deal, but I just don't want to see the next trend being 10oz or 9oz bottles that cost the same as they did when they were a nice round 12oz!

Serving type: bottle

11-13-2008 17:16:15 | More by pmcadamis

Bourre

France

3.7/5  rDev +33.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4.5

The head was short, on a pale golden color, very light. The smell is of very refreshing citrus and honey. The taste is very refreshing too, with citrus and ginger. Hints of honey maybe, very sweet. The mouthfeel is enjoyable, with a nice level of carbonation, a slightly herbal hoppiness, and a hint of honey thickness maybe. Very drinkable.

Serving type: bottle

06-08-2004 14:19:28 | More by Bourre

feloniousmonk

Minnesota

3.63/5  rDev +31%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

"Premium Indian Pilsener" "Produced from the finest malt and imported hops with technical expertise of Belgian Brewers." Label depicts a bejeweled potentate.
Appearance: pale gold color, large and frothy pure white head. Nose is subtle and sly, showing only hints of spicy hops, and a whiff of citrus, a little sweet, even corny, and quick to dry out and flatten.
Nice little texture at first sip, lip smakcingly good. Quite drinkable, though unmemorable. Light body, and overall not much more than a cookie-cutter international lager, showing some faint resemblances to a pilsener, but not enough.
Further into the drink, I appreciated the taste more and more, and liked it better. An excellent match for hot, spicy food, and by far the best Indian lager I've tried yet!

Serving type: bottle

05-11-2003 14:06:00 | More by feloniousmonk

Lauthaha

Michigan

3.63/5  rDev +31%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Poured from a single-serving bottle into a wine glass for the hell of it.

Appearance: Straw-to-gold color (on the lighter side), with a very airy head which leaves moderate lacing as it recedes slowly.

Smell: Not all that bad. Smells a touch corny, but plenty of flowery-citrus underneath the corn. The good outweighs the bad here.

Taste/Mouthfeel: Lots of flavor here! The citrus is much more prevalent in the taste than in the nose. Moderate hop bitterness bites through the mellow carbonation. Lots of hops after the citrus wears off. A touch oily in the aftertaste.

Drinkability: Slightly better than average. I'd opt for this over most macro-brewed pilses, but give me an IPA or a stout any day in its place.

Not too shabby. Not a *huge* pilsner fan, but this one is easily better than the American macros.

Serving type: bottle

12-05-2010 00:18:26 | More by Lauthaha

NealVsBeer

Wisconsin

3.55/5  rDev +28.2%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3 | overall: 4

A - Pale golden color with a two-finger head which quickly reduces, plenty of carbonation

S - slight corn smell

T - Sweet and light up front, slightly malty, crisp finish

M - Very light and smooth

D - Very easy to drink, it's lightness and crispness would lend itself nicely to drinking on a hot day. I will try this again.

Serving type: bottle

06-25-2010 22:08:46 | More by NealVsBeer

heavy216

New York

3.53/5  rDev +27.4%
look: 3 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

A: 11 oz bottle. litle head faded quickly, high carbonation can actually hear it as poured, looked like apple cider with fizz

S: smelled of corn and malt, slightly fruity as well.

T/M: very smooth, refreshing feel and taste

D: not bad, no alcohol taste, but a strong mildly sweet aftertaste

Serving type: bottle

01-18-2011 12:41:21 | More by heavy216

donnebaby

North Carolina

3.48/5  rDev +25.6%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

This beers shows up a dirty yellow color with a non-uniform, scummy head. Not unimpressive lacing--looks pretty good overall.
Smell is sweet and malty, with something else citrusy, reminiscent of a belgian white.

The taste is mild and smooth, as is the carbonation, but persists in the mouth and delivers a solid package of sweet syrupy maltiness, lined with apples and peaches. Both taste and mouthfeel are somewhat complex, and I always look forward to drinking this beer whenever I can find it.

Serving type: bottle

03-20-2004 11:38:30 | More by donnebaby

AaronHomoya

Indiana

3.48/5  rDev +25.6%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Clear, light golden-yellow color with lots of large bubbles of carbonation. White, light head that faded away to nothing after a while.

Aroma is lightly sweet and yeasty with a bit of noble hops.

Taste is pretty good. Malty and light with some lager yeast flavors and a touch of hops flavor towards the end. Finish is clean and nice.

Mouthfeel is light, fairly thin, smooth and refreshing. One of the better light pilsner styles I've had.

Serving type: bottle

04-14-2007 13:39:05 | More by AaronHomoya

e11iott

New York

3.48/5  rDev +25.6%
look: 3 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3

A: 11 oz bottle. sounded like there was an alka seltzer in my beer, but oddly little to no head, very light in cool, like watered down ginger ale.

S: slight corn and fruit aroma, some malt.

T/M: served cold had light body. very smooth, refreshing but lacked other good qualities.

D: Alcohol was well hidden, odd sweetness in the aftertaste, not bad, but wouldn't buy a case.

Serving type: bottle

01-18-2011 05:43:41 | More by e11iott

ibbjamin

California

3.43/5  rDev +23.8%
look: 4 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

Paid $1.49 for an 11 oz bottle of this from BevMo in San Jose, CA. This is my staple beer I drink when going to my favorite Indian Restaurant. With their selections being Taj Mahal or this, I have come to the conclusion this is a better match with the hellish spicy food they usually give me. Trying this one for the first time on its own, served in a pint glass.

Very fizzy, carbonated and light with a one inch head. Transparent yellow color, but more on the corn colored spectrum than most yellow beers. Thin layer of head retention. Nice lacing, especially for a yellow/Pilsener.

Smells of average quality ingredients; malts, hops and some yeast smells. All of these come through on their own, but don't really blend together for a nice bouquet.

Grassy and citrusy hops dominate the palate. The yeast cannot really be tasted, and the malts, even though taste to be lower quallity (along with the hops), balance out this one well.

Lighter bodied, heavy carbonation. Watery finish.

An above average German Pilsener and one that goes great with spicy food. Not sure why this one ranks so low.

Serving type: bottle

07-09-2008 22:38:25 | More by ibbjamin

Justin23060

Virginia

3.38/5  rDev +22%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

Golden in color. Head was gone before I even put the bottle opener away. Smell is cereal grain with no real hop presence. I was surprised by the freshness, considering how long it sat in my house before I decided to drink it (a perfect example of the benefits of using brown bottles). Not at all over the top sweet, but about as balanced as you can get for an adjunct pilsener. Carbonation is adequate. I classify this in my personal sub-category of "lawn mowing pilsener" - albeit a good LMP (as opposed to what I call an "old world pilsener"). I could see this being great for washing down a plate of samosas. I wouldn't turn one of these down.

Serving type: bottle

08-08-2011 01:52:17 | More by Justin23060

morebeergood

Massachusetts

3.33/5  rDev +20.2%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

Ordered a bottle tonight while at dinner at India Quality restaurant in Kenmore Sq. Poured into a tall stemmed glass. Crystal clear, yellow colored body. Fairly nice looking white head. Plenty of carbonation. Had that typical corn-like smell. Decent pilsner flavor, with a bit of maltiness. Body was on the thin side. I wish this beer was a bit more crisp, as it had a definite sugary and sticky aftertaste. For a macro from India, this was not a horrible beer. I've had worse exotic beer than this; I'd order one again. A nice brew to accompany some chicken and lamb dishes.

Serving type: bottle

06-27-2009 03:47:33 | More by morebeergood

BeardedBoffin

Minnesota

3.28/5  rDev +18.4%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

The 33 cl bottle of Maharja Premium India Pilsner poured crystal clear, a pale golden brew with a ring of white fading foam. The nose consists of contributions from pale malt and grassy bitterness. This beer has a light body. This beer reminds me of a mass produced Euro style lager and one that isn't that bad. Malt is followed by a touch of bitterness. The carbonation bites the palate a bit.

This isn't a bad beer. It could use a little bit more flavor and some refinement, but I enjoyed the bottle I had.

Serving type: bottle

07-22-2010 01:44:27 | More by BeardedBoffin

BadBadger

New York

3.25/5  rDev +17.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 4

Not a bad pilsners. Rather refreshing. This pours a light golden color. There is a nice white foamy head. The taste is smooth and pleasant. This is a drinkable beer. While not something I would recommend rushing out to buy. This is certainly worth giving a sample.

Serving type: bottle

06-08-2004 02:50:18 | More by BadBadger

shadow1961

Minnesota

3.23/5  rDev +16.6%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

Maharaja Pils (not to be confused with the Avery IPA of the same name) pours
a finger of creamy white foam over a clear yellow brew. Carbonation is active,
and the nose is pils yeast and barley. The flavor is sweet-ish light malt up front
with a bit of herbal hop in the finish. There seems to be notes of something like
oak in there somewhere too. Mouthfeel is surprisingly round yet crisp. Pretty much
the most interesting brew from the Indian subcontinent I've had so far. Okay, that's
really not saying that much, but it get's the job done.

Plus the label is cool.

Serving type: bottle

08-13-2007 07:44:18 | More by shadow1961

sophisticated

Michigan

3.23/5  rDev +16.6%
look: 2 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3.5

Randomly picked this up; thought an Indian beer would be interesting. I'm definitely no expert on Pilseners.

A) ginger ale. light, fizzy, no real head.

S and T) mild and sweet - apple, corn, water

MF) thin, watery

D) Overall, it's okay. Nothing too exciting, but it was pleasant enough, just kind of sweet and bland. Could be good to balance out some spicy food or something.

Serving type: bottle

12-17-2009 01:39:57 | More by sophisticated

rkuhnel

California

3.1/5  rDev +11.9%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

Got this in a restaurant in Ashland, Oregon. From the bottle this poured a clear light corn colored yellow with a fizzy highly carbonated head with light lacing.

Nose of caramel malts, citrus and grassy hops and some yeast. . The mouthfeel is light but smooth.
Grassy and citrus hops dominate the flavor. The yeast does not show up here. Finish is slightly bitter and watery. An average German Pilsener that went well with the spicy food.

Serving type: bottle

12-12-2008 21:20:33 | More by rkuhnel

SargeC

Japan

3.1/5  rDev +11.9%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

Appearance: Pale yellow brew with a slight haze. Tight, white head.

Smell: Touch of hops and green beans.

Taste: Smooth malt flavor. Slight touch of bitterness. Nothing really stands out about this brew but it has a decent flavor. Slightly tangy.

Mouthfeel: Light-medium body. Semi waxy.

Drinkablity: Pretty decent brew. It was an interesting offering I was not able to pass up. I figured that I may not get a second chance to try an Indian brew.

Serving type: bottle

12-13-2008 07:12:05 | More by SargeC

cadenwhitaker

Minnesota

3.1/5  rDev +11.9%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

I'm surprised how unpopular this beer is

With that said, I found it just fine. Not spectacular, but not terrible. I think culture needs to take aspect with beer. For example, I could see enjoying this beer while eating a very spicy curry dish or some lamb. By itself? Ehhh, just an average beer, not good / not bad.

Serving type: bottle

02-20-2009 02:40:49 | More by cadenwhitaker