After a shitty week or so (seems like I have a lot of those doesn’t it?), I decided that I really needed a good beer.  Thankfully, luck was on my side as a brand new six pack shop opened up very close to my house.  Being the complete beer dork that I am, I was obligated to pick up a six pack of some random beer and see if I could find any "gems".  Sometimes picking out random beers is a crap shoot, as you have no idea if you’re going to find a quality product.  I chose to pick out three beers from micro breweries here in the United States, and three imports.  Today I’ll be trying out one of those imports entitled Staropramen Lager.  This will be my first time tasting this beer, so hopefully this will be a discovery of a "gem" and not a turd.

Staropramen is a Czechoslovakian beer from the brewery of the same name.  My only over previous experience with Czech beer is drinking the popular Pilsner Urqell.  I first tried Pilsner Urquell in a European beer variety pack with Tyskie and Peroni (all three of which are under the beer brewing giant, SABMiller ).  Let’s just say that Tyskie and Peroni are long gone, while the neglected Pilsner still holds a spot in my fridge.  The metallic-like taste puts me off at times.  However, I was still willing enough to give Czech beer another chance with Staropramen and I’m much more pleased with the results.

Staropramen pours with a minuscule amount of head that dissipates fairly quickly and has a slightly dark golden appearance.  You can also see lots of bubbles here, as the carbonation is in full effect.   It smells faintly of malt and hops, but neither aroma is overbearing.   Upon first sip, I was greeted with a pleasantly refreshing taste and a smooth dry finish.  The hop bitterness is very small but still noticeable, as is the malt flavor.  The small amount of bitterness works in this beer’s favor, and you might even be able to taste some citrus-like elements somewhere in there.  With all these different elements, none of them are complicated and it makes this beer a simple lager that’s perfect after working in a cubicle all day.  

No metallic aftertaste here folks, just a straight forward, awesome Czech beer.  Also gets extra points for not tasting like you’re licking a muffler.

Taste: Above Average

Smell: Average

Drinkability: Excellent

Final Words:

It looks like I picked a good one to review here.  Perhaps I was drawn to it due to the fact that it’s packaging looks similar to Jameson’s Irish Whiskey (at least it does to me due to the color scheme, or maybe I’m just retarded)?  Anyway, it tastes good and it’s incredibly easy to drink with an  ABV of 5.0%.  It’s much better than Pilsner Urquell in my opinion and makes me want to seek out more Czech beer.  This is among one of the better lagers I’ve tried, and I’d buy it by the case if I could find it.  If you’re in the mood for a good lager and you come across this, give it a try.  I even gave it a crooked, Quasimodo-like,  thumbs up  as you can see above.  Recommended.
 

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