India Special Reserve Beer

The first beer entered for this particular brewery...., for a beer that's new to me. But considering the rather iffy history I've had with several other Indian lagers, this is actually one of the better offerings from there, comparatively speaking.

Standard (for India) 650mL brown bottle, with a rather obscure looking label. The highlights of a tradional Hindu print in the background, in various shares of ruby red. Yellow text over the top, with perhaps one of the world's more boring names for a beer.

"A superb brew by the master brewers in India, a full bodied, hoppy Indian Lager, made with finest quality, hops, and waters of the Himalayan Ranges". Um, okay. At least they have the spiel down-pat. Does it live up to it?

Eh, {shrug}, I sup'pose so. Not too horrible when first poured -- looks good in my tall Fordham pils glass. And enough gumption in both the nose and the flavor profile to not be too disappointing.

But as this warms up, this beer's uglier side tends to come through. I submittd this beer as a "Strong Lager", even if it's only 6%ABV, since it definately starts to show it's true nature as it warms up, and comes across to me as more of a "Malt Liquor Light" than anything else.

But that's not to say this repulsed me. Yes, it does have some basic hoppy notes in the mix, which is a welcome change of pace, coming from this part of the globe. And even some very basic bready notes in the malt bill too.

But the fact that this tries very hard to be a malt liquor, come hell or high water -- and regardless of the very basic hop- and malt-profiles trying to state otherwise -- means I have a hard time giving this truly stellar marks.

An interesting beer, of a weird "Dr. Jeckle and Mr Hyde" nature, but one that I really can't recommend, in the final analysis.

Better than most Indian lagers, but still tries way too hard to be schwill-ish....
//TB