Thursday, January 08, 2009

My first Lithuanian beer



Sometime during the "Christmas season," I visited a new liquor store - located on the corner of Blue Hole Road and Bell Road in Antioch - to get some wine. I was perusing the chilled wines when I seen a brand o' beer that I'd never seen before: Zhiguly Grand, which comes straight from Lithuania.

Zhiguly Grand is a high-alcohol beer, 9.5% by volume, which is the reason it can only be sold in a liquor store in Tennessee. (Don't even get me started 'bout Tennessee's arcane laws dealing with the sale of booze and beer.) I'd never heard of ZG before, and the label looked pretty cool, so I decided to give it a try ... $2.99 for a pint.

During check-out, the liquor store guy not only told me that ZG is a tasty brew, he also told me that it's a corn-based beer. The label didn't say nothing 'bout corn, so I can't vouch for it being corn-based; however, I can tell you that it is one fine-tasting Lithuanian brew.

I usually shy away from high-alcohol beers, mainly 'cause they tend to have a thin, metallic taste that burns the tip of one's tongue. Tain't the case with Zhiguly Grand. Indeed, it has a rich taste that trips over the tounge and coats one's throat like a quality lager.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I give Zhiguly Grand a 7.5. I will purchase it again.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"I usually shy away from high-alcohol beers, mainly 'cause they tend to have a thin, metallic taste"

My brother talked me into buying a bottle of Thomas Hardy in the Frugal's liquor store once. It was almost 5 bucks for a pint. It tasted like a half pint of beer and a half pint of rubbing alcohol. I will take your word for that Lituanian beer because I will never drink another liquor store beer again.