Zhiguly Barrel 95

This is a 9.5% ABV strong lager from Lithuania. The bottle says things like "finest ingredients", "highest quality", "delectably rich", and for "demanding palates."  Have you ever had an Eastern European strong lager? I have, and they make me skeptical of these claims, but let's try it and see.

The beer pours a hazed golden yellow in color. There is a tall head of thick, bubbling, fizzing white foam. The aroma is honey sweetened grains, herbal, grassy, damp straw. The taste follows the aromas, but is stinging with booze, very grassy, very bitter, with a medicinal/metallic finish. It is fairly well carbonated, with a very heavy body. It at least has enough hops to cut the sweetness, but I think they used "hop flavored chemical extract" that had been stored in old Soviet-era metal barrels. It burns! It burns!