Simpler Times Pilsner
Minhas Craft Brewery

Simpler Times PilsnerSimpler Times Pilsner
Beer Geek Stats | Print Shelf Talker
From:
Minhas Craft Brewery
 
Wisconsin, United States
Style:
German Pilsner
Ranked #633
ABV:
5.5%
Score:
71
Ranked #27,962
Avg:
3.04 | pDev: 23.68%
Reviews:
165
Ratings:
339
Status:
Active
Rated:
Feb 29, 2024
Added:
Oct 12, 2008
Wants:
  7
Gots:
  35
No description / notes.
View: More Beers
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by ruckus232:
Photo of ruckus232
Reviewed by ruckus232 from Illinois

3.03/5  rDev -0.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3
12 Ounce brown bottle

Appearance: Straw color with good white head that diminished quickly and left only a little lacing.

Smell: Fairly strong aroma of sweet corn with a slight alcohol smell but not unpleasant

Taste: Less taste then smell it starts out with a sweet taste leading into a very tiny hop flavor at the end. This taste is not at all what I would expect with a pilsner considering there is very little hop flavor at all.
May 25, 2009
More User Ratings:
Photo of stevoj
Reviewed by stevoj from Idaho

3.1/5  rDev +2%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3 | overall: 3
60 cents a can at Trader Joe’s. Not bad for the price, clean, clear and crisp pilsner. Plenty of adjunct grains here, a little light o aroma and taste, and no finish, but great on a hot day (it’s been in the 100’s here, so it tastes good right about now)
Feb 29, 2024
 
Rated: 3.53 by PaulMayer from Illinois

Sep 10, 2022
Photo of schoolboy
Reviewed by schoolboy from Ohio

2.78/5  rDev -8.6%
look: 3.25 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 2.75 | overall: 2.75
I stopped at the new Trader Joes in Mentor, Ohio today. This is the first I've seen of this chain in Ohio. I wasn't all that impressed but I found a few things and bought some of their cheap beer. This one shares its' name with a song I wrote in the 80's. They also had a lager with the same name that I avoided.

This one is a pilsner. so I expect a bit of bittering. It pours deep golden with nice fine head. The aroma exists, that's a start. It's a little hoppy smelling. The taste is OK - slightly bittered, pretty drinkable. The aftertaste also shows bitterness, as per the style.

Recommended. It is a tremendous value at $4/six. It's not the greatest pilsner you will have but it is the greatest you will have for $.67/can. I might not like more than one.
Aug 26, 2022
 
Rated: 3.23 by 88caprice from Virginia

Jul 06, 2022
 
Rated: 3.5 by bacher468 from Pennsylvania

Jun 29, 2022
 
Rated: 2.37 by Rollmeaway2loadout from Illinois

Mar 05, 2022
Photo of JZH1000
Reviewed by JZH1000 from Colorado

2.77/5  rDev -8.9%
look: 1.25 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 2.75
Got as a "gift"/reject from my boss so my expectations aren't high. 12oz can
Look is the definition of headless. Looks like I poured a soda. Bubbles are large and disappear no more than 40 seconds after the pour. After that carbonation slows down quite a bit. Color is of honey, darker than a lot of lagers that arent sold as dark. Still not a dark lager, but darker than most pilsners. Very very very light haze. Kind of looks flat.

Smell isn't bad, slight lager off note, but not as major as I expected. Some hops are present. Most of the malt is covered up by that fermentation lager characteristic. Overall the smell is quite bright with a bit of floral and grassy notes with a slight bite.

Taste has a bit of diacetyl followed immediately by a weak hop bitterness which covers up the off flavor pretty quick. It's not too bad. Not great but drinkable and if you look at the price it could be a good everyday beer. Some fruitiness is present almost like banana despite not being an ale. It's also quite sweet. As you drink the off taste transitions more to the sweetness and the hops fade as well. The malt becomes quite present but also quite generic by the end of the beer.

Feel is quite drinkable due to the lower carbonation. Would be quite nice very cold unlike mine. Could be a very refreshing beer. Not watery despite the cheapness. All the malt seems to give it a nice body.

Overall despite the flat looks all other characteristics are good enough but not great. For the price that's really all you can ask for. Its drinkable, relatively refrishing, cheap, and only a little bit funky. More than could be said about more than a few cheap beers out there.
Jan 28, 2022
 
Rated: 1 by -Andrew- from Michigan

Nov 09, 2021
 
Rated: 1.25 by AndrewFord666 from Illinois

Oct 28, 2021
Photo of MeanMotaScootah
Reviewed by MeanMotaScootah from California

3.3/5  rDev +8.6%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.25
So for starters this is a $3.99 for a six pack here in LA sooooo you'll need to adjust your expectations as the old saying goes: "you get what you pay for". This is not a bad beer, way better than a standard American adjunct lager. It pours a copper brassy color with a 1 finger head. The aroma is malty, nothing special. The taste is not like a typical pilsner because the hop level is low. There is a carmel/butterscotch flavor going on too which is not typical for a true pilsner. It is also had a bit more maltiness than your typical pilsner as well. Overall this is a decent beer at an amazing price so check it out if you're on a budget.
Jul 03, 2021
 
Rated: 3.15 by wisegreensoul from Idaho

Mar 28, 2021
Photo of BubbleBobble
Reviewed by BubbleBobble from New York

1.55/5  rDev -49%
look: 2.75 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1.25 | feel: 2.25 | overall: 1.5
Pours a rich, clear amber with a nice 1.5" frothy off-white head, and strong, solid lacing. If not for the color, this one doesn't look half bad. Off the bat, I get strong whiff of metal, almost as if I was smelling the can itself. As it warms up slightly, caramel candy (those big, cheap by-the-pound variety in the clear plastic wrapper) becomes pretty dominant, with bits of sweet corn, wet grass, and cardboard. Taste, unfortunately, follows pretty accurately - strong notes of pennies and cheap, slick and sweet toffees; again, as it warms, sweeter corn flavors come out. Mouthfeel is moderate, maybe a little oily. Honestly, better than expected, but best consumed cold and fast.
Dec 31, 2020
Photo of StonedTrippin
Reviewed by StonedTrippin from Colorado

1.61/5  rDev -47%
look: 3 | smell: 2 | taste: 1 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 1.5
this is truly awful, one of the worst beers ive tasted in years, maybe ever. so much wrong with this, except the price, just north of fifty cents per can at trader joes, if this was even tolerable i would maybe buy it on the weeks im a little strapped, but this was a sip, a head shake, another sip to confirm, and then down the drain, couldnt do it. their lager was only marginally better, but this is an unmitigated disaster. almost amber in the glass, clear and all, but doesnt look right for the style, way too dark, decent head for a second though, the looks is off, but its the best part of this. it smells and tastes like the can, like drying paint, like burnt plastic and citrus, cheap malt extract, and no yeast or fermentation element that i have ever known, super chemical and weird, way worse than their lager here. you swallow it and think you are through the worst of it, but then this wash of compost and bitterness hits at the end, hardly tastes like beer at all, and the aftertaste hangs on forever. i cant do it. the price does not justify the purchase, i couldnt even drink this. objectively this is among the worst beers ive ever had, steer clear!
Nov 20, 2020
 
Rated: 3.4 by DownyIsHungry from Minnesota

Aug 18, 2020
Photo of HoppingMadMonk
Reviewed by HoppingMadMonk from New Jersey

3.23/5  rDev +6.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3
Looks nice,cloudy,orange amber color.
Body is a little thin with about average prickly carbonation
Aroma is tough to describe as it wasn't overwhelming. Some citrus, grainy cracker, malt, yeasty bread. As it warms the aroma becomes a bit stronger.
Taste is mildly sweet,malt, balanced with some bitter hops. The sweetness and hops linger in the aftertaste with the bitterness being more dominant. It doesnt have too much of that commercial (bud) corn syrup taste.
This is typical of trader Joe's beer. I want to be a harsh critic till I remember what I paid for it. Then I sit back,shut up, and just enjoy it for the reasonably priced beer it is
Aug 12, 2020
 
Rated: 3.45 by entenduintransit from Tennessee

Aug 09, 2020
Photo of buzzscag
Rated by buzzscag from Hawaii

1/5  rDev -67.1%
look: 1 | smell: 1 | taste: 1 | feel: 1 | overall: 1
This stuff is awful. Taste like paint thinner smells. Gave me instant heartburn.

I’ll take a standard mass produced anything over this.
Jan 27, 2020
 
Rated: 3.43 by Jcarriglio from Florida

Jan 18, 2020
Simpler Times Pilsner from Minhas Craft Brewery
Beer rating: 71 out of 100 with 339 ratings