{"id":7186,"date":"2022-08-05T14:00:24","date_gmt":"2022-08-05T12:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/?p=7186"},"modified":"2022-08-05T14:00:32","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T12:00:32","slug":"cesky-kabancek-beer-in-kaliningrad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/cesky-kabancek-beer-in-kaliningrad\/","title":{"rendered":"Cesky Kabancek Beer in Kaliningrad"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mick Hart\u2019s totally biased review of bottled beers* in Kaliningrad (or how to live without British real ale!)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Published: 5 August 2022 ~ Cesky Kabancek Beer in Kaliningrad<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article 21: Cesky Kabancek (Czech Boar)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before we start, take a look at the photograph that follows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mick<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I know what you\u2019re thinking. Well, that\u2019s a rum way to introduce a post that purports to be a beer review. But what do you see on the table, apart from that lovely old biscuit tin from England? You see a bar of chocolate, two sachets of meaty cat food, two packets of crunchy cat biscuits, a 1000 rouble note and a pile of medications. My wife, olga, left these for me before setting off for a weekend at the dacha, knowing that in her absence I would be sedulously embarking upon another rigorous research project into the variegated world of beer tastes and qualities. The contents of the table represent a weekend\u2019s survival kit. Not that I was about to sit down with a beer and two plates of cat\u2019s grub. I\u2019m odd like this: I much prefer peanuts, olives and cheese myself, but the moggy needs his food as much as I need my beer. He also likes the odd piece of chocolate. He\u2019s a most extraordinary cat: a ginger version of Tomcat Murr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1000 rouble note would eventually be exchanged for a beer from the local supermarket, along with carefully selected not-for-cats snacks and as for the Gaviscon and Omeprazole, well I should think they are self-explanatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previous articles in this series:<\/strong>
Bottled Beer in Kaliningrad<\/a>
Variety of Beer in Kaliningrad<\/a>
Cedar Wood Beer in Kaliningrad<\/a>
Gold Mine Beer in Kaliningrad<\/a>
Zhigulevskoye Beer Kaliningrad Russia<\/a>
Lidskae Aksamitnae Beer in Kaliningrad<\/a>
Baltika 3 in Kaliningrad<\/a>
Ostmark Beer in Kaliningrad<\/a>
Three Bears Crystal Beer in Kaliningrad<\/a>
Soft Barley Beer in Kaliningrad<\/a>
Oak & Hoop Beer in Kaliningrad<\/a>
Lifting the Bridge on Leningradskoe Beer<\/a>
Czech Recipe Beer in Kaliningrad<\/a>
Zatecky Gus Svetly in Kaliningrad<\/a>
Gyvas Kaunas in Kaliningrad<\/a>
German Recipe Beer in Kaliningrad<\/a>
Amstel Bier in Kaliningrad<\/a>
Cesky Medved Beer in Kaliningrad<\/a>
OXOTA Beer in Kaliningrad<\/a>
Lidskae Staryi Zamak Beer in Kaliningrad<\/a>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The beer that was given to me in exchange for that piece of paper with the figure 1000 printed across it, comes wrapped in a brown paper bag. The bottle within the bag has no commercial label, just one describing the contents, where the beer is made, who it is who makes it and other official trading stuff.  All this is written on a small, plain label and in print the size of a pin head, so once the bottle is out of the bag, without the aid of a microscope, you won\u2019t know what you\u2019re drinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bag says it all, however, and in a rather cute and attractive way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working purely from presentation, initially I could not make up my mind whether this beer fitted comfortably into my \u2018bog standard beers from supermarkets\u2019 category or whether it should be included in a new series on which I am currently \u2018working\u2019 (ah, hem) titled craft and speciality beers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, and rapidly, pressured by the desire to sup not think, I decided to go ahead and review it within the beers purveyed through supermarkets\u2019 category, justifying my verdict on the grounds that since it was bought in such an establishment who could argue otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, not wanting to expose myself for the guzzler that I am, before whipping the top off and splashing the beer eagerly into my glass, I took a calculated moment to observe the packaging ~ sort of thoughtfully like ~ as if by doing so I would exculpate myself from all and any accusations of being nothing more than a beer-swilling lush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ye of little faith might consider my brief excursion into the world of packaging to be nothing more than a rather crude and obvious workaround, but the benefit of the doubt seems to lie in my favour. At least I am inclined to think so. Why else would I linger lovingly at the sight of a pig with a snarled snout and two curling tusks when I could be getting it down my neck? I believe that this particular method of beer drinking, of \u2018getting it down one\u2019s neck\u2019, is reserved for the benefit classes (formerly working class) who populate Northern England, some perilously close to Haggis country where goodness knows where they \u2018get it\u2019, possibly up their kilts!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cesky<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But of tartans and tarts there were none. The brown bag into which the bottle is dunked has a big-toothed porker (Does she come from Rushden? Check for tats!) standing proudly above a foaming tankard of beer (I suppose she must.) beneath which is written \u2018Live\u2019 \u2018Nonfiltered\u2019. This tells you that the beer is made from natural substances with no additional additives and\/or preservatives, which also tells you that it has a lower shelf-life threshold than its filtered counterparts, so you\u2019d better get it down you, one way or another, as swiftly as you can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n