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Before I start into today's beer sampling, I have two important announcements.

1. I will not be sampling a beer on Friday.
2. I have started brewing my own beer.

Since I will be in Fargo this weekend, I will not have a chance to sample a beer. However, this weekend trip gives me an opportunity to buy beers that are not available here in Manitoba. In all likelihood, the next few weeks will be spent sampling premium American beers.

As for brewing my own beers, I just figured on a whim that I probably have enough experience in sampling beers at this point to have an idea of what a good beer tastes like. Or at the very least, what kind of beer I like. So I bought a domestic wheat beer kit. I have not started the fermentation process since time does not allow it yet. But I will start it up sometime next week and report on its progress on this blog. When I'm done, if anybody wants some free beer just drop me a line.

Without further ado, let's move onto today's beer sampling.

This Ukranian beer comes in a blue 500mL can with 5.3% alcohol/vol. There is not much English on the label. I had to hunt around to find the English translation of the beer's name in the fine print. I'm basically going into this beer completely blind. There is what appears to be a best-before date on the bottom of the can of May 25. I'm cutting this one close, so I probably shouldn't expect much.

Upon opening of the can, I was greeted with a strong floral aroma. Once poured, the aroma disappeared. The dark yellow beer formed a large head that disappeared rather quickly. There were lots of large bubbles.

The first sip was bland. It had a slight apple taste. But there wasn't much hoppy bitterness to it at all. There was also a slight metallic aftertaste, but that could be completely discounted by the proximity to the best-before date. Apart from the apple tones, there was not much memorable about this beer.