Maharaja Premium India Pilsner - Associated Breweries & Distilleries Ltd.

Hibernator

Massachusetts

2.83/5  rDev +2.2%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3

Maharaja Premium Indian Pilsner
11 oz brown bottle
MFD date : 11/2004
Served in a pilsner glass

Pours a shiny straw yellow color with a minimal head on top that quickly vanishes. Mini carbonation bubbles race to the top of the glass.

Rather unappealing nose with some whiffs of light grains and sour notes.

Sweet and grainy tasting with some hints of corn. Slightly sour and bitter on the finish with a pressured carbonation blast. Hop presence is minimal at best and a tad disappointing for the style.

Overall, my impression is that this a beer not worth seeking out or one that I would purchase again anytime soon. However, I would be open to trying a fresher sample. I would also be curious to see how this would work with some curry spiced Indian food.

Serving type: bottle

08-22-2006 21:43:01 | More by Hibernator

stephendr

California

2.9/5  rDev +4.7%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5

yellow appearance – white head - nose straw, corn and nutmeg - taste corn, straw dry– aftertaste bland yellow appearance – white head - nose straw, corn and nutmeg - taste corn, straw dry– aftertaste bland yellow appearance – white head - nose straw, corn and nutmeg - taste corn, straw dry– aftertaste bland

Serving type: bottle

08-09-2006 04:16:22 | More by stephendr

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

utahbeerdude

Utah

2.85/5  rDev +2.9%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3

Visual: Light, clear gold, head subsided rather quickly, decent carbonation.
Aroma: Typical pils/light-lager aroma, malt dominated with sweetness that has a slight tobacco character. Tobacco character seems to dissipate as beer warms.
Flavor: Flavor and mouthfeel are somewhat hard to separate due to the impact of carbonation in this beer. Initially carbonation dominates, then malt with creaminess from carbonation, prickly carbonation in finish, then mild, dry bitterness in aftertaste.
Mouthfeel: Body is decent, not too light.
Overall: Quite clean, but domination by carbonation makes it somewhat unbalanced. Beer I reviewed was brewed 11/2004, reviewed 5/2006. Typical time between brewing and purchase in US for this beer?

Serving type: bottle

05-22-2006 20:09:58 | More by utahbeerdude

hylton44

Minnesota

2.8/5  rDev +1.1%
look: 2 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3

This was a really watery-looking beer. Pale, & faded yellow with a really fizzy head. I was not working with a clean palette, but my first thought when I sniffed was, "Good Lord, champagne!" And, by God, my first sip TASTED like champagne, and kind of bubbled around on my tongue like champagne.

As I continued through the beer during the course of my meal, a few of the more beer-like qualities of this beverage began to reveal themselves. Eventually-and I'm not sure why my experience evolved like this-I found this to be a somewhat agreeable drink, if quite sweet and decidedly (to my taste) un-pilsener-like.

Serving type: bottle

03-01-2006 16:53:26 | More by hylton44

aforbes10

Iowa

2.65/5  rDev -4.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.5

Ordered a bottle of this while out for Indian food last night. Mainly i ordered it because i wanted to add the cap to my collection but i figured i could review it too (note to cap collectors, the foil covering obscures a perfectly nice cap design, do not be deterred).

Pours witha crisp golden appearance. very clear and bubbly. no head is maintained. Smells like a pilsner should and tastes good...light malt flavor with piney hop taste too. As it warmed up i detected some skunkiness so i downed the rest quickly. Went well with the Indian meal but i probably won't order this fella next time.

Serving type: bottle

02-15-2006 13:57:32 | More by aforbes10

JudgeRoughneck

Louisiana

1.85/5  rDev -33.2%
look: 2 | smell: 2 | taste: 2 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 1.5

There is a curious sound this beer makes when you poor it. It is eactly like pouring a fizzy soda. Its quite loud. The head is gone in a flash and leaves a few meager stains on the surface of a beer that both (and I'm not kidding here) looks and smells exactly like apple juice.

Taste is very light in this watery brew. It is tangy with an uncontrolled fruit off-flavor. Probably won't be finishing this. It isn't particularly offensive, its just kind of a "why bother?" beer. Unpleasent aftertaste is a big blow to drinkability.

Serving type: bottle

01-22-2006 04:15:01 | More by JudgeRoughneck

slyke

Minnesota

3.03/5  rDev +9.4%
look: 2 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3

I tried Maharaja while going out for Indian food. Its appearance was similar to a large-scale macro-brewed American light lager - not something that looks appetizing to me. There wasn't much I could detect in the aroma, but the taste was pretty good. There was a peachy note in the flavor and a nice hop finish. The taste of this beer definitely made it for me. Mouthfeel was thin, but within reason. I scored this one average for drinkability. I'm not sure I could drink Maharaja all day, but the one I had with dinner complimented the food well, and I could have had another.

Serving type: bottle

11-16-2005 00:51:30 | More by slyke

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

Padron4KM

Arizona

2/5  rDev -27.8%
look: 3 | smell: 2 | taste: 2 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 2

11.2 oz bottle. batch no. 650 manufactured 11/2004.
Okay so going in I know it’s probably past it’s prime.
Poured clear yellow with a white head and no lacing.
Aroma is grain and corn.
Flavor is corn,lemon,acid, with a dry finish.
Mouthfeel is sharp, overly carbonated.
If was I was at an Indian resturaunt I might drink this, but I think I'd prefere water.

Serving type: bottle

10-23-2005 06:00:31 | More by Padron4KM

TastyTaste

Minnesota

1.93/5  rDev -30.3%
look: 2.5 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 2

Very light hazy pale gold colored body, small white head, not much to look at. Smell and taste are akin to soda water. Watery and fizzy, maybe a little graininess, nary a trace of hops anywhere. Not a very good beer, no matter. If this is Maharaja, I would hate so see what Raja tastes like.

Serving type: bottle

09-13-2005 00:16:42 | More by TastyTaste

BuckeyeNation

Iowa

1.75/5  rDev -36.8%
look: 3.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 1.5

Pallid amber with a few fine floaters frolicking within. The bright white cap is a majestic four fingers in height and is nicely firm. There's quite a bit of lace too, although it doesn't last. This is a better than decent look. In fact, I might have thought 'quality German pils' if I hadn't seen what bottle it came out of.

I knew the nose wouldn't maintain the standard set by the appearance because I've been smelling the beer from afar since the cap was popped. It isn't quite skunky, but it's certainly nothing that appeals to me either. It's musty and tangentially floral with a definite chemical-like undercurrent.

The odd flavor is a fair approximation of the nose. The first half of each mouthful is bland and inoffensive. Then 'Something Wicked This Way Comes'. Bitter greens, hot plastic, minerals, Band-Aids. Oddly enough, it's still drinkable. However, there's no way I'd go any deeper into the bottle if I wasn't sacrificing my palate for the sake of this review.

The mouthfeel is light, even for the style, without descending to the depths of 'light beer light'. More carbonation might have helped. As far as drinkability, it depends on what one's options are. I'd take a bottle over undergoing Chinese water torture, but not over most pilseners that I can think of.

Apparently, Maharaja Premium Indian Pilsner was brewed with 'the technical expertise of Belgian brewers'. That means it has to be good, right? Not so fast muchacho. The Indian Subcontinent is anything but a hotbed of brewing excellence. Given that, it's amazing that this little foil-capped pils isn't even as good as the better known substandard pale lagers from that neck of the jungle.

Serving type: bottle

09-02-2005 00:55:21 | More by BuckeyeNation

mentor

Colorado

2.63/5  rDev -5.1%
look: 4 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5

Bottle obtained from Total Beverage (Colorado) and consumed the next evening in August 2005. MFD is 06/2004, batch 233. Pours a three finger nearly white head over a crystal clear pale yellow liquid...pretty much macro beer colored. Smells potently Saaz tin-like hops with mild malt sweet underneath. Also a bit of play-doh smell. Tastes quite hoppy flavored. Saaz-like zing...tin and iron and earthy. Malt sweet is underneath and is somewhat honey-like, but more noticable is a cardboard flavor. Hop bitter is amazingly low, considering how strong the flavor is. Light bodied and heavily carbonated. It causes the beer to partly foam in the mouth and stings the tongue with acrid bubbles.

Serving type: bottle

08-05-2005 03:30:08 | More by mentor

ALESwhatCURESya

Wisconsin

2.83/5  rDev +2.2%
look: 2.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 3

Man people really bashed the Maharaja so I thought I was going to start New Years Eve day off with a headache, but it truthfully wasn't as bad as I was expecting. The appearance, taste, and aroma all seemed a little too synthetic to be real beer. There was a sweet sugary taste that seemed to hide the true nastiness of this stuff. The mouthfeel is like drinking a bucket of dirty sand. My teeth have a layer of grit and fuzz on them and my throat is giving me the finger. Again, overall, not the worst beer I have ever had, but thankfully it only comes in an 11oz. bottle. I have a feeling that this one is going to hurt on the way out.

Serving type: bottle

12-31-2004 18:04:01 | More by ALESwhatCURESya

GClarkage

California

1.93/5  rDev -30.3%
look: 2.5 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 2

11/22/04- Purchased at Wine Globe in San Mateo, CA

Appearance- Pours a light pale yellow color with minimal quickly disappearing head and very slight traces of lace.

Smell- It smells like bad cheap bum liquor. Maybe like nightrain or white port. Not a good smell. If anything maybe a smell of budwieser but worse.

Taste- Guess I wasted my $1.79 on this one. Very odd (in a bad way) taste. Don't really know how to describe it. Malt is there, but something is in the background. Something stale tasting. Stale grains? No hops do I detect.

Mouthfeel- Way to carbonated. Like seltzer. My stomach is hurting after three sips.

Drinkability- Hello sink, here comes your dinner.

Serving type: bottle

11-23-2004 01:08:53 | More by GClarkage

mschofield

Massachusetts

3.08/5  rDev +11.2%
look: 2.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

Pours a clear pale gold, well carbonated and topped with a quickly dissapearing one finger white head. Left no lacing.
Lemon, light toast aroma, surprisingly there was no sulfur at all. I guess it was very well taken care of since my notes are from 6/04 and it was manufactured 3/03.
Richer malt taste than the color would indicate, lemon, zesty, grassy taste. A bit of pepper and herb.
Light and a bit snappy

Serving type: bottle

08-12-2004 18:06:50 | More by mschofield

IronDjinn

Alberta (Canada)

1.2/5  rDev -56.7%
look: 2 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 1

At one point I had mistaken this for Taj Mahal, as it was so bad, and had my review for that deleted. But now I've come to realize that these are both different yet equally awful beers in their own right.

Comes in a 330 ml brown bottle, a red label, gold foil around the neck and cap, with a black logo of a Pegasus on the foil, with the words UB beneath it. Remember this well, as to be able to avoid it all the better in the near future. On the pour it is a thin looking clear yellow hue, okay white head that recedes to a thin ring. However the moment you bring the glass up to your nose the thing doesn't hesitate to bitch slap you. Swilly, cidery, skunky fumes waft up from the glass, keep it away from your eyes. The flavour is horrible, sour old grains, a cidery apple-juice like flavour. This stuff was only made 6 months ago according to the date on the back label. The mouthfeel is thin, but difficult to concentrate on, as the flavour is so bad. Now I understand why the liquor store always has a lot of this stuff packed in on their shelves--no one is buying it, it just sits there. I receommend not buying it either, I find it truly awful.

Serving type: bottle

07-28-2004 22:08:14 | More by IronDjinn

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

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

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

ADR

Pennsylvania

1.9/5  rDev -31.4%
look: 3 | smell: 2 | taste: 2 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 1.5

Medium yellow (not as pale as some), transparent appearance. The head is soupy and pretty thin, but it holds up and leaves traces of lacing on the Pilsner glass. Aroma is pretty reserved, slight sulfur tanginess that might have some relationship to hops. Light but overcarbonated, seltzer overpowers the ordinary maltiness and combines with the funky aroma to give an odd and unsettling close -- a little like Smith Bros. cough drops or even traces of locker room witch hazel. I can't recommend this beer as drinkable in a tasteless kind of way, it has some off properties to me.

Serving type: bottle

03-05-2004 17:22:07 | More by ADR

Imbiber

New York

2.6/5  rDev -6.1%
look: 1.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 2.5

Brewed May 2003 according to the bottle, so 9 months old.

Hazy pale yellow. Carbonation is heavy, lots of big bubbles constantly dash to the surface. The head disappears instantly. Slight hoppy, flowery aroma. A bit of hop bitterness comes out, though the aftertaste is strange and somewhat rough - tastes more like it came out a can rather than a bottle. Too gassy.

Not a beer I would recommend.

Serving type: bottle

02-17-2004 18:21:45 | More by Imbiber

GCBrewingCo

North Carolina

2.42/5  rDev -12.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 2 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2

The beer pours crystal clear with a white head which falls quickly. The aroma is Saaz hops and a decent malt background. The flavor is slightly sour, crisp and bitter. Also present is a metallic flavor. he finish is bone dry. The body is light and watery.

11 ounce bottle (330 ml). Bottle says original gravity 1042-1048 ABV 5%. It also says:
"Produced for the finest malt and imported hops with the technical expertise of Belgian Brewers"

Serving type: bottle

12-29-2003 00:11:37 | More by GCBrewingCo

garymuchow

Minnesota

2.13/5  rDev -23.1%
look: 2.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 1.5

Bottle lists original gravity as well as reference to "Belgian Brewers."
Aroma is a sweet mix of pale sweet water, malt and light fresh hops.
Very fizzy sounding. Medium white head that settles on its own and only leaves a ring. Watery looking in light gold.
Mostly bitter in taste. In background very mildly is a little pale malt. Taste gets worse as warms to a unpleasant bitterness.
Fizzy mouthfell, excessive carbonation.
This is pretty bad, other that an okay aroma, I can't thing of any redeeming qualities.

Serving type: bottle

12-18-2003 03:27:42 | More by garymuchow

alexgash

Connecticut

2.6/5  rDev -6.1%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3

Bubbly straw body with a cottony looking white head. Smells of sweetened cereal malts and big metallic, funky hops. Taste is not as sweet as the smell led me to believe, with singed malts and some medicinal/slightly astringent hops leading to a dry, bitter, finish. A pretty smooth, easy to drink lager, but I wouldn't move to India for this.

Serving type: bottle

11-12-2003 20:07:30 | More by alexgash