#aukstaitijos-keptinis

Big flippers

Scouring the lower beer shelves at speciality grocer Polonez turned up these two beers, from Lithuanian conglomerate Aukštaitijos Bravorai. Both are in distinctive flip-top one-litre bottles. A big commitment, but that just shows the effort I go to for you. Keptinis  is first, and I know enough about Lithuanian brewing to tell you that that's the style rather than a beer name: a traditional brewing method which involves oven-baked malt. That it says so on the label in English steals my nerdy thunder somewhat. It also says it's an unfiltered dark lager, and I'm not sure if that's part of the spec, but it is helpful. In the glass it's a murky red-brown colour, with a thin and fine head of off-white bubbles. Few beers have an aroma as malt-forward as this, smelling like nougat, Mars bars, and assorted other confectioneries which rely heavily on malt extract. Thankfully it's a lager, so while the flavour goes all-in on malt sweetness, that's set on a pristine clean body, feeling very