I'm afraid that this post might come across rather inflammatory, given the title and my final opinion, but I will try to be fair.
Before I get started on subjective matter, though, a little background...
I say "a little" background, as I have dug up very little of interest concerning Baltika Breweries' methods for producing this, or any of the other beers in their range. My research was brief, but most breweries these days will push information on their methods to the forefront in an effort to market themselves as "wholesome" or innovative and compete with the increasing popularity of craft brews. Baltika's website, however, is more focused on advertising the success of their brand, and other top search hits do likewise, or simply sell the products. The only innovation that I can see being pushed is Baltika Cooler Light's pull-off lid....inspiring!
Even advertising seems to be more about making noise about the product and it's "cool" credentials than anything more substantial.
Here is what I did learn: Baltika are part of the Carlsberg Group, following the privatisation of the Baltika Brewery in Saint Petersburg in the 1990s. They produce several well-known brands including Carlsberg (obviously), Kronenbourg, Corona Extra and Asahi Super Dry.
According to Carlsberg's Group's own site, Baltika Cooler Light, a Pilsner, was launched to "strengthen Baltika's lead in the Russian beer market", which currently stands at over 34%. Baltika's brand recognition is already very high in Russia.
This was all surprising to me, because - as you might have guessed - I did not enjoy this beer.
In fact, I'd go as far as to say that it's probably the worst beer I've ever tasted - both in terms of personal preference and quality.
There was a familiar smell to it when I cracked it open that, for some reason, was overwhelmingly reminiscent of the dog we had when I was much younger, and the smell that used to come from the metal "bin" in which we kept his supply of dog biscuits.
The taste was not awful, to be fair, but there was a definite lack of flavour. I couldn't really give any tasting notes, other than to say that the after-taste was slightly medicinal in quality, as this beer was so incredibly bland.
I don't believe that I'm alone in my criticism. I've looked up other user reviews of this beer on YouTube and there opinions are much the same as my own...maybe minus the dog biscuit revelation...I think that one's specific to me.
I tried to salvage something more from this experience for this blog post, but I'm afraid my research into the Russian alphabet only served to confirm that the Russian characters on the bottle are a phonetic translation of "Cooler". I failed to distinguish enough of the remaining characters to make any translations elsewhere
к = k
у = oo
л = l
е = e
р = r
So, conclusion: I didn't dig this one, and am irritated that I didn't even manage to learn anything culturally from it
Still, don't take my word for it, feel free to judge for yourselves.
You can find out more about Baltika here, and buy Baltika Cooler Light (and many other much better brews) at Beers of Europe
