I'm off work today so a good excuse to sample
@Hazelwood Brewery's
Czech Pilsner, and more importantly to see if it deserved to beat my German pils in the Nov competition. I'll be impartial, promise...
Aroma
Lovely fresh herbal and lightly spicy hops, a slight carbonic bite but otherwise very clean.
Appearance
Very pale straw colour, a thin white head with good retention. A bit of yeast haze which was my fault from a bad pour (not on purpose, I swear).
Flavour
A very pleasant soft, bready, doughy pilsner malt profile with the beautiful and elegant saaz hops coming through nicely with a crisp spiciness. Very well judged bitterness, just balancing the sweetness enough to keep it refreshing. The bread crust flavour that lingers through the finish is delicious. Again a bit of carbonic acidity from the high carbonation. Just a hint of greenness, I reckon another couple of weeks conditioning will see a big improvement.
Overall Impression
Initially this was rather over carbonated for my taste. I know a lager is generally highly carbed but personally I don't like a lot of fizz, and I felt it was killing the malt flavours a little. So I took your advice from last time and whipped some of the fizz out of it. And wow the beer really came alive. Delicious. The delicate and beautiful pils malt and saaz combo is captured just wonderfully here with a lovely balance of flavours that are a classic for a reason. When people say they don't like lagers I can only assume they're basing that on flavourless US beers like Miller or Bud and that they've never tasted a properly made continental style lager like this, because it's superb. Exceptionally drinkable while having plenty of depth of flavour. It also reminds me just how good a simple recipe can be when executed properly. The fact that this such a young beer is noticeable to be honest, but it's subtle enough not to detract and in a couple of weeks this could be really special. Just out of curiosity, I saved the last little bit so I could compare side-by-side with my German pilsner. Yours definitely has more of the bready malt flavour and is considerably less bitter, and it really highlights the differences between saaz and hallertau, which I found very interesting. So did yours deserve to beat mine in the competition? Well put it this way, I was more sorry when yours was finished than mine, so as much as it pains me I have to admit that I agree with
@MickDundee, yours is better. But only by 1 point...
Anyway thanks for another great beer :hat:
