No. 1 Turbo Bock Beer

The first beer I have decided to review is the only Latvian beer I was able to easily find. Turbo Beer is brewed by Livu Alus, the third largest brewery in Latvia. The label describes it as:

"Nr. 1 Turbo, the beer of dark amber color with concentrated sweetish taste and aroma of malt supplemented with enjoyable bitterness of hops."

First Impressions
Turbo comes in a nice 1/2 liter (16.9 oz.) bottle and has 9.5% alcohol by volume. A Bock style beer is basically just a strong lager. In America, we would call this a malt liquor style beer, and it is indeed quite strong.

The aroma you find when the bottle is first opened is sweet with a strong sense of malted caramel and a hint of cherry.

When poured, it has a distinct amber color with a golden tint and an off-white head.

The first sip was smooth, sweet, and strong. There was little aftertaste with almost no hint of enjoyable bitterness that would be present with more hops.


Full Experience
Other than being stronger than a regular beer, Turbo goes down easily, too easily. While I was drinking it I felt as though something was missing. I would have been more content with the sweet malty taste as long as there a more rich flavor and aftertaste. Unfortunately, I think this will be a turn off for most.

All-in-all, I think this beer can be, at least, somewhat enjoyable if you don't mind the unusually sweet taste. It seemed as though Livu Alus was trying to make a beer for the sole purpose of getting hammered yet wanted to give it a distinct taste. If they would have just focused more on the the taste, they could have had a potential winner on their hands.


Rating
Aroma: 3/5
Appearance: 3/5
Flavor: 2.5/5
Palate: 2/5
Overall (not an average): 2.5/5


Second Opinion
Although it could have a better aftertaste, it is an enjoyable beer nevertheless. The sweetness is unique and somewhat unexpected, in a good way. Overall: 3.5/5

What's With the Blog?

Beer is an art form. It is has complexities and a richness that few other things in life have. Many of us beer-drinkers have yet to become connoisseurs, though. I am one of those people.

There are a lot of resources on the Internet for people who want to take up beer drinking as a hobby, but I wanted to have a place to document my experience adventuring into the world of beer. This blog will be written through the perspective of someone who starts out not knowing all that much about the true depth of beer. Because of this there we will often be explanations of what certain terms mean and more clarification on certain aspects that a veteran beer hobbyist might find unnecessary.

My current goal is to review at least one beer a week. I will often invite friends and family to do taste tests with me to get more than one opinion about each beer. I have found some good sources for obtaining specialty and imported beers, so there should be quite a bit of diversity of tastes documented in the blog.

I hope you join me in my beer adventure. Drink up and have a good one!