Borefts Pilz
Brouwerij De Molen

Thanks to Adam @ Platinum for this freebie.

Pours a cloudy lemon white. Little retention.

Wow, wtf? Smells like Retsina, a type of wine with pine added. Lots of nuttiness, vinegar, sourness. Dolmades. This is bizarre. There's apple and lemon but it's cut by this strong herbal, nutty, Retzina-esque flavour.

Taste is similar- Retzina, Dolmades, nuttiness. Very savoury and really does have the sour and vinegar notes to it. Has a pineappley / pine-colada-y element.

Lowish body, medium carb (gets prickly). Sourness.

Can't say I loved it but interesting.

Nice light gold. Big white head off the pour settles to a finger-width. Clumpy lacings.

Unfortunate level of butter on the nose. Some nice grain, but with a sweetness to it. Good fresh grass seed hops.

Nice crisp grain up front, but gets a bit muddled by what comes across as diacetyl. Nice hops throughout though, just could have been kicked up a tiny notch. Nice dry finish.

Not a bad beer. I'd serve it cooler than usual to mask some of the unwanted malt flavour. Served quite chilled and you get nice grass without the butter and sweetness.

Drunk to toast the nuptials of Prince Willy. And toasted they were.

Pours a pale straw colour with a cloudy haze. Generous snowy head, good retention with a lovely cradle of sticky lace left behind. Pretty damn fine keller.

Smells very sweet, with lots of grainy notes, sweet barley and slight tart wheat, with a very decent cold funk underlying; rubbery and slightly metallic. Slight cakey malt note underlies, to produce a nice balance between the sweet and funky notes. Pleasant.

Taste doesn't have much of that sweetness, it's mostly funkadelic. Lots of that rubber with touches of corn, caramel, a slight buttery flavour and a drying touch of chilled champagne. Nice and dry, mildly metallic overall but with a rich, sweet airy note overlying it. It's complex but refreshing as well. Very drinkable.

Quite dry on the feel, lots of sizzle. Doesn't reach harsh levels though, it's crisp and lagery overall. Good.

Enjoyable drinking beer. I'm a fan.

Purchased from the Adelaide Bier Shop. Listed under this name on the De Molen website; my bottle just says "Pilz", but it's certainly the Kellerbier of the description on the website.

Pours a cloudy, bright yellow colour, with a large-bubbled and frothy head of white, that leaves soapy suds down the side of the glass as it froths itself out. Some sediment from the pour. Colour and body look nice, and the unfiltered turbidity makes for a pleasant looking beer.

Nose is crisp and slightly buttery, giving mild, slightly fruity hop aromas and a twinge of keller-like phenols. The fruitiness really doesn't suit it, and the buttery sweetness is too much. Only when you breathe very deeply do you get the sharper, leafy hop characters I expect in a pilsener, or especially a keller.

Taste is a little better, perhaps because here the grain notes take prominence. The crisp German grain characters give a dryness to the palate which is pleasant and suitable for the genre, while a light peppery bite on the back adds more stylstic credence. Still only wavering hints of those classic unfiltered keller phenols you get in the best examples. Feel is smooth, but with bubbling and reasonably aggressive carbonation.

A good beer, but not an outstanding one. A diminutive example of the genre compared with some others, and probably below the standard of De Molen generally.