Profiled by Maria Devan
Pours clear and golden with a fast falling and fizzing head of white foam. Nose is more intense than the last one I had with orange. This one isn’t orange peel though it’s orange pulp. The hops are chinook, cascade and centennial. Spice and a pleasant doughy malt. Very citrusy with light zesting from the peel. Honestly it smells like fresh orange juice and that is marvelous! it tastes like tang in the aftertaste. Do you remember tang? “The astronauts drink it.” It’s very bready actually and quite crisp. Bubbly and light flavored with this fresh orange. The spice and pepper take the end but the hops don’t overtake the mouthfeel. Herbal accents come forward as it warms and I think this beer is another good one to demonstrate the American hops in this style. It’s got a good malt stance which a pilsner has to have, the same fizzier bubble that seems to be more successful in presenting the stronger fruit flavor more lightly to the palate, and this one has a crisp well defined bitterness. Dry, German style bitterness . The hops do come very close to the middle of this beer but stop just shy of too much. That is where they can make the pilsner heavy and out of balance. The flavors should not be too strong. The malt should be dominant and on the American hopped beers it never is. The hoppy middle mouthfeel is where too much bitterness is wrong and washes away the malty finish. The bubbles can do that too. I am starting to like this style. It is a variation on the pilsner that is also not exactly an IPA. Hmmmmmm
Morning you guyz!
IPA well known flavors and hops on a pilsner style beer. The wood or piney element of the one hop is actually well hidden and makes up only a light touch as far as flavor. It does not taste at all like pine which is why it does not resemble the IPA in that respect. That is important. So can we guess that the aspects we were trying to tame are in the mouthfeel because of the nature of the amount of hops used? Are less hops used in the pilsner overall as compared to the IPA? IS it the bittering hop that is showing that woody aspect completely under control. Then that also is German style pilsner and well done with the hop they used.
4
Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”
__________________________________Beer HERE
___________________________________________________________________
Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is a great beer writer. That’s Maria in the middle. The other two are not, but they are lucky to have her as a friend.