Kestrel Super Lager - The Caledonian Brewery Company Limited

ElCommodoro

Texas

4/5  rDev +13.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3 | overall: 4

Pours a delicious looking hazy gold with a small creamy head. The smell is sweet and fruity with wet cereal grains in there. Maybe a hint of metal.
Taste is sweet, boozy, and delicious. A bit of a stale flavour, though. A bit metallic. That's the only problem with it, I'd say. Has that delightful, fruity, high-alcohol lager flavour to it. Very light, though. None of that green apple nonsense. Mouthfeel is a bit sticky, but very very thin. It's the first euro strong I've had in a while, but I think it's slightly thinner than the others.

Serving type: can

01-25-2012 07:38:48 | More by ElCommodoro

xylophonica

Australia

3.33/5  rDev -5.7%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

Poured from a 500ml can into a lager glass.

A - Light amber colour, minimal head.

S - Mild wheat, with a dash of honey & mead.

T - Touch of phenols at first. Sweet with an underlying bitter malt.

M - Combination of the malty hit with some standard bitterness.

O - Strong, full bodied lager. Just lacking that something special to make a truly worthwhile beer. Solid malt lager at least...

Serving type: can

04-23-2011 13:47:53 | More by xylophonica

Hubris

Australia

3.45/5  rDev -2.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 4

Not much to say that is not obvious from the moment you buy it:

Cheap English lager in a 500ml can that is 9.0% alcohol- made especially for the discerning Ibiza lager lout.

The funny thing is that it's quite drinkable, despite the bite of the alcohol through a sugary/malt aroma (we're not talking Duvel here!). I think I even smelled a hop?

Golden colour, thin head, low carbonation, good clarity. As I said, you know what you're buying, but actually better than you would think.

Serving type: can

03-27-2009 08:49:53 | More by Hubris

dionisio

New Jersey

3.33/5  rDev -5.7%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3

Let me first say that, while I fully appreciate quality beer (Baltic porters, English bitters, and lambics are some of my favorite styles), I also appreciate beers that will get me drunk cheaply. I don't like nonsense beers like Bud Lite and whatnot, but I have no problem drinking, for instance, St. Ides. This is that sort of beer.

So..

I had this beer one time in England, from a 500ml can. I was looking to get drunk, and I saw this in the convenience store, and remembered hearing Devvo (http://www.fat-pie.com/chavs.htm) singing about it, so I thought, "hey, Kestrel, I gotta try this."

As far as cheap, high alcohol beers go, this one was surprisingly good tasting. In the US, malt liquors are generally 8-8.2% abv, so at 9%, this is quite strong, and yet, probably better than American malt liquors. I'd almost say this is a good beer. I mean, the taste actually had something going for it, in my opinion. It was definitely easier to drink and better tasting than Tennent's Super Strong Lager (another popular high alcohol cheap beer in the UK).

Serving type: can

05-22-2008 15:56:29 | More by dionisio