Arsenalnoye Krepkoye (Strong) - Baltika Breweries

Olivander

Illinois

4.13/5  rDev +47%
look: 3.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

Appearance - It's got a nice dark golden color with about a 1/2 inch white head that dissipates fairly quickly. It doesn't have a memorable appearance, but it certainly looks good in a glass.

Smell - Nothing special. There was not much of an aroma at all.

Taste- I love the taste of this beer! It's got a prevalent syrupy sweetness to it, almost like a pancake, that is very pleasant. Some might think it's a little too sweet, but I like that in a beer, so it struck me well. For 7% ABV, you can't taste much alcohol. Delicious! Especially for those who aren't big beer drinkers.

Mouthfeel- Pleasant to the touch. Lightly carbonated and goes down easy, especially for 7% ABV.

Drinkability- Very drinkable. The sweetness makes it easy to drink a lot of this stuff.

Overall, considering that I am able to get this stuff at a local liquor store for $0.99 per half liter bottle and mainly care about the last three categories, this is a tremendous buy for me! Experienced beer drinkers will likely consider this beer to be average, but many inexperienced drinkers will find this to be a delight.

Serving type: bottle

12-31-2009 18:39:36 | More by Olivander

Hibernator

Massachusetts

3.5/5  rDev +24.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Arsenalnoye Krepkoye
16.9 fl oz brown bottle
Best before 26.10.09
Served in a 20 oz tulip glass

Pours a golden yellow color with a super white colored head. Little spots of lace appear.

Whiffs of a fruit basket with a floral backdrop.

Syrupy and sweet cereal grain flavor a decent mouthfeel. Hints of granny smith apples and a nice hop snap on the finish.

Nothing fancy, but drinkable. For a beer that is 7%, this goes down rather easy.

Serving type: bottle

08-18-2009 23:35:38 | More by Hibernator

rugerj

Virginia

2.8/5  rDev -0.4%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5

The beer pours a nice golden color, slight head that fades fast. The aroma is of slightly sweet amlt and some subtle alcohol. Hop aroma is non-existant. Taste is sweet malt with very little alcohol. Mouthfeel is average, very little carbonation.

This beer is not terrible but I would most likely not purchase it again. A little too sweet, most likely in an attempt to hide the 7% alcohol. There are better export lagers available.

Serving type: bottle

03-28-2009 21:08:18 | More by rugerj

MTNboy

Germany

2.98/5  rDev +6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3

Appearance- It gas a bold golden body with a nice white head that disappears quickly.

Smell- It has strong citric hops aroma. Very crisp.

Taste- It has a very cheap flavor it is adjunct filled for the most part. It has a strange fruitiness to it and some mild citrus and hop tones.

Mouthfeel- Medium bodied with average carbonation.

Drinkability- Oddly, it is not too bad.

Serving type: bottle

09-28-2008 13:25:04 | More by MTNboy

WesWes

New York

3.2/5  rDev +13.9%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

The beer pours a nice gold color with a thin white head that quickly fades to spotty lacing. The aroma is decent. It has a sweet malty scent. There are no traces of the increased alcohol or any hops. It's clean and crisp. The taste is decent. It has a rich, malty flavor despite it's pale profile. It's quite sweet throughout with just a touch of hops in the finish. The mouthfeel is average. It is a medium/full bodied beer with less than adequate carbonation. This is an average Euro lager. It's way too sweet for me, but I guess it gets the job done for people looking for a quick buzz.

Serving type: bottle

10-19-2007 23:39:17 | More by WesWes

NeroFiddled

Pennsylvania

3.03/5  rDev +7.8%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

A: Clear golden body. Frothy white head. Good retention. Better than average lacing.
S: Sweet adjunct maltiness. Alcohol. Some minor vegetal or earthy character.
T: Average, sweetish adjunct-laden maltiness. Alcohol is noticeable but not overdone, and generally expected in stronger Eastern European lagers. Mild herbal hops. Solid bitterness. Finishes dry with a light wash of alcohol.
M: Medium bodied with a very fine-bubbled, moderate carbonation.
D: Pretty average.

Serving type: bottle

12-10-2006 03:47:47 | More by NeroFiddled

TheLongBeachBum

California

2.93/5  rDev +4.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

Presentation: Bless my little cotton Commie socks. A beer from Baltika which doesn’t have a number! One of the great things about living in LA is the multi-cultural atmosphere I work in, my work colleagues know my love for beer and often I get unexpected gifts from some obscure places, this is one of them from a fellow Engineer formerly of Russia. A metric sized half-litre (500ml) brown glass bottle, labeled as 1 Pint 0.9 fluid ounces for the US market. The label is all foreign to me though, none of this translated “Arsenalnoye” rubbish, my bottle has the word “APCEHAΛБHOE” which translates as “Beer from the Arsenal”, in rough speak above the words “Extra Lager” in a smaller white text. The Arsenal heritage is borne out by the symbol atop the main label, a pair of dueling flintlock pistols crossed over a large letter “A” in a red circle. Main crown cap is red and has the text ““APCEHAΛБHOE ПОВО”. Listed as Alc. 7.0% by Vol. with a Production Date of 03.08.05 and Best before Date of 03.08.06.


Appearance: Tremendous head on the pour, an expansive white jobby which stays at around 1-2” for some time and only slowly collapses, but always leaves a decent covering. Faded golden body with a pale-straw super-lucid clarity. A handful of streamers with average carbonation levels. Soft lacing which soon slides down back into the body of the Lager.

Nose: Low strength aromas, I struggled to get anything at first, but I managed to get a reasonable guess at what was going on before the beer completely disappeared.

Taste: Biscuit malts, pale and lightly toasted with some sweetness and a little grassy bitterness in the finish. Very “middle of the road”, it never strays from the tried-and-tested Lager formula, but there again neither does it suffer the awful “adjunct” laden sweet corn soaked in high alcohol crappy tastes that many East-Euro 5%+ Lagers project. Clean enough to enjoy but simple enough to forget.

Mouthfeel: Never found the alleged 7% alcohol, unless it was asleep and waiting to kick my ass later on. Conditioning was good enough to add a smooth aspect and the lightly chilled body which kept the tastes in check. It felt OK, nothing great but good enough.

Drinkability: I must stay that I really did not mind this one, not mediocre but nothing more than average. Simple enough with a clean profile, and I certainly wouldn’t turn this one away at a Russian BBQ if it were offered.

Overall: Not that bad actually, rather surprised in fact. But still just OK.

Serving type: bottle

06-15-2006 03:17:53 | More by TheLongBeachBum

Brent

Kentucky

3.33/5  rDev +18.5%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

Essentially malt liquor, but not all that bad. Coppery, leaning toward amber with a short-lived head. A little thin and astringent at first, but some lightly sugared malt flavor follows. Thins out a bit again toward the end, with a pleasingly clean finish. Alcohol does not do much to announce itself, although you can detect a touch of fusel alcohol if you try. Overall, one of the better in this class that I've had an opportunity to try, and better than any US counterpart malt liquor.

Serving type: bottle

04-01-2006 06:12:30 | More by Brent

eze153

Pennsylvania

1.7/5  rDev -39.5%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 1 | feel: 2 | overall: 2

Well when I bought this one, I was thinking it was similar to Baltika's Number 6, well I was way off on that. let me tall you about the experience with the beer.

When I poured it there was a decent amount of head and through out the drinking experience there was a small head ever-present. The body was clean and clear... This was the best part of the beer.
The smell was a bit of a skunk, class A. I really thought that I was in for some skunked beer.
The taste was better than a skunked beer but not by much. It tasted like a low quality vodka mixed with beer. I even gagged on the first gulp, and my girlfriend thought that it was like a traditional, National, American Lager. Though I think I would rather drink a Miller lite over this one. I would never drink this beer again nor would I recommend this to anyone else.

Serving type: bottle

01-16-2006 02:15:11 | More by eze153

Bonhoeffer

Alabama

2.78/5  rDev -1.1%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

Not as bad as it could have been. Like their #9, i purchased it without really knowing what i was getting myself into. Thought it would be maltier than it is.

Anyway, light on flavor and heavy on alcohol. Absolutely nothing impressive, but it's drinkable. Wasn't stinky or nasty. Just not all that great. If i was in Russsia, i could put a few of these down in the absence of anything better. Fortunately, i am able to get much better beer, and i will.

Serving type: bottle

09-03-2005 19:08:36 | More by Bonhoeffer

RoyalT

Ohio

2/5  rDev -28.8%
look: 2 | smell: 2 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 2

Appearance – This came out a light urine-orange with no head.

Smell – This beer smells like pee, so I wonder when I take a piss if my urine will smell like beer? I mean, this stuff is just rancid. It smells like it’s been aged under a sunlamp.

Taste – It doesn’t taste like piss, thankfully. It tastes more like regurgitated creamed corn from the can. Actually, I threw up after eating about six yams once when I was a kid and, seriously, this takes me back to my youth.

Mouthfeel – This one is flat with little carbonation that produced a Listerine-like gag reflex. I finally burped . . . but I think I threw up a little.

Sinkability – I’d pour this down the sink except that Farmers threatened to cancel my homeowner’s insurance.

Serving type: bottle

03-29-2005 03:30:05 | More by RoyalT

ybnorml

Rhode Island

3.53/5  rDev +25.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

A clean yellow/golden yellow beer. Has a big foamy bright white head that leaves a good lace. The aroma is a sweet grass with a hint of lemon and a light biscuit malt in the background. The flavor starts with a strong rush of alcohol into your mouth. Followed by a light malt sweet and a light hop pricklyness on the back of your tongue.

Serving type: bottle

03-20-2005 19:19:59 | More by ybnorml

Globetrotter

Virginia

2.58/5  rDev -8.2%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5

Pours a slightly darker shade of gold, with a big fizzy head that disappears quickly. There is, however, some lace clinging to the side here. The smell is alcohol and a touch of rust, whereas the mouth is a bit heavy. The initial taste is a touch sour, alcohol kicking in as we head towards the finish. The aftertaste is sour. I can't find any hops here. Still, it is not repulsive, as many Russian strong beers are...

Serving type: bottle

06-28-2003 11:26:02 | More by Globetrotter