Happy Pils
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery

 

 

On tap from the brewpub, an aggressive pour yielded a very small head but it did stick all the way down the glass. Color is a very light straw and also very clear.

Very little smell, combination of style and the fact it is served at about 34 degrees.

Taste is a very typical pils malt flavor, little hop flavor and a sweet aftertaste.

Mouthfeel and drinkability are where this guy really shines. Every sip makes me want to pick the mug up and down another. If I dared to get a keg I might down it in a weekend by accident with a couple friends

Had this one on tap tonight at the Orland Park Rock Bottom.

A= This beer poured an extremely clear, pale yellow color with a 1" white head that lasted quite a while. The head eventually faded to a skim but was easily renewed with a swirl of the glass. Lots of sheet lacing down the glass.

S= I found some average (saaz?) hop aromas and a faint sulphur smell. Overall pretty clean.

T= This beer produced a nice clean bitterness up front, followed by a flash of malt sweetness, then on to a long dry finish.

MF= Light side of medium bodied. Very active yet appropriate carbonation gave this one a crisp feel.

D= This was a pleasant surprise for me. I tend to either love Czech pilseners or hate them, and this one was very pleasant. Highly drinkable.

Very little information out there about this beer. Despite being a rotational beer, it seems that it is always on-tap when I visit the bar. This is a cleanly brewed, assertively hopped pilsner that has no evident off-flavors, and keeps graininess and astringency at bay. Sweetness is amped up to keep in balance with the hops, but the flavor of Saaz dominates in a wonderful, dry, crisp way. Low on sulfers or other abrastions, the beer holds on to a full malty character from the nose to finish. Light apples and spicy pears are the only esters while the yeast give a bready, yeasty note throughout. Finishes with a crisp, hop dryness and malty richness.

This was the Beer of the Day at the Denver Rock Bottom. On sale for $2.50, was recommended by my server.
Clear, golden color with a bright white head. Clean, grass hop smell. Great tasting beer, fresh, crisp, refreshing and just enough of a hop kick. Mouthfeel was a touch thin and maybe a bit overly carbonated, but not enough to complain about. I thought this was a very well made example. Good balance, went down smooth on a hot day.

(Served in an American pint glass)

A-This beer has a light pale yellow crystal clear body with a strong carbonation of big bubbles and a snow-white head that is very bubbly. The head fades to a thick ring after a bit.

S- The smell is light but has the soft green bitterness of noble hops that becomes a bit earthy as the beer warms.

T- The taste of dry raw grain blends into a noble green hop flavor that has a tartness to it. The finish has a sulfur note and a pungent noble finish.

M- This beer has a light mouthfeel with a soft fizz at the finish that boost the pungency of the hops a bit.

D- There is not much interesting in this beer but it is light and dry with the pungency of the hops being the strongest flavor. The tartness in the hops is a bit off but not obnoxious.

Luminous yellow gold that looked to be lit from within rather than from without. The flawless liquid was crowned with a compact disk of bone white foam that melted to nothingness over time, leaving splotchy sheets of lace in the process.

The nose, sorry to say, was underpowered. My notes say only 'bright', 'balanced', 'grain' and 'possibly citrus'. I went back to it again and again, but didn't gain anything else as it warmed.

Wow! Happy Pilz is probably the most bitter beer that I've ever had at this brewpub. I can't say that it was unbalanced, though, because there was just enough underlying pils malt to take the sharpest edges off the alpha acid buzzsaw. Once I tasted it, I was even more amazed that I couldn't smell much.

I took a guess on the style, picking German Pilsener over Czech Pilsener because I thought the hops tasted more like Hallertau than Saaz. Of course, I'm probably way off-base. (Note: wdmrock has just informed me that American Magnum, a Hallertau variant, was used). The malt side of the flavor profile reminded me of barely toasted, sun-ripened grain rolled in granulated sugar. That isn't to say the beer was sweet. Far from it.

Ten tons o' hops swamped over my tongue, delivering such flavors as lemongrass, bitter greens, sourdough bread crust and a sprinking of dried herbs and shaved grapefruit peel. The finish was snappy, but it wasn't overly clean due to...

... a mouthfeel that featured an impressive hop oil linger. A body that was a few clicks more full than medium (for the style) contributed to the long finish. The carbonation was abundant, yet was so fine as to be manageable. In fact, I liked the tongue tingle.

This beer won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it will be if you're a dyed-in-the-wool hophead. It's another in a long line of quality offerings from what I believe is Iowa's best brewpub. I'm sure some people need happy pills to get through the day. I'd be fine with a daily pint of Happy Pilz.

this was the monthly specialty release for june. pale straw in color, this looked like a macro lager except for the more natural head. aroma was faint, some floral/grassy/vegetal notes of saaz hops were present along with a hint of sweet malt. taste is a very light malt sweetness upfront with a moderately bitter finish of good length and crispness. a pretty uncomplicated beer, good for the style, a good lawnmower beer. the freshness definitely helped, many pilsner styles i've had have had freshness issues.