Über Pils
22oz bottle poured into a CAMRA UK pint size glass, served refrigerator cold. Pours with lots of carbonation and a dense, heavy head which falls slowly and unevenly. Beer is just on the amber side of yellow, while the head is a yellowish off-white. For appearance of the beer, it's a split decision between the "ugly" apple-juice-looking liquid and the beautiful, heavy looking head. Aroma is of sweet apples and pears -- a little bit unexpected in a big pilsner -- as well as grapey smell reminiscent of barleywine. Again, I can't decide if the smell is great or terrible. Some people will definitely be turned off by it, if only for the fact that this doesn't really smell like beer. In the first sip is head is still thick and foamy, while the carbonation in the beer is moderate. I really like the foam...very flavorful. Taste is surprisingly sweet for a pilsner, where I expect the primary characteristic (especially in an American, "ber" pilsner) to be the bitter, skunky hops. There's no alcohol taste to counterpoint the sweetness. The hops are definitely not overpowering here -- they're actually mostly an aftertaste, on the back of the tongue, with a little bit up front as well. Interesting balance. The hops help to counteract the overly sweet malty character of the beer, which is a little bit cloying. According to the label, the hops are 100% Sterling, but 4 different malts are used. As the beer goes down it laces the glass with a heavy and wet remnant. The thing that's really interesting about this beer, besides the aroma, is the maltiness. It's not a dark colored beer, there's no toasted malt or dunkel quality to the beer, it's just a ton of bright, sweet, malt flavor. The balance with the pilsner hops is what's going to make or break this beer for most people, I think. It doesn't really work for me, but I could see how someone would really like it.