Kiwifruit Pils
Croucher Brewing Co.

On tap at GABS festival in Melbourne, May 2014.

Pours a straw colour, slight haze - possibly chill haze - and off-white head, dense and retaining a nice thick crown. Looks awesome, fresh and lovely.

Smells of kiwi, yeah, but just loads of NZ hop character. Lemon and apple/pear notes with a touch of coriander spice. Lovely, light and refreshing.

Taste is similar - no real malt presence but great light hop complexities coming through midway through. Pineapple, kiwifruit, lemon and pear notes. Fairly bitter but certainly not overdone. Lovely pils.

Decent body for the style, goes down fluidly.

Lovely pilsener, and the best beer I've had from Croucher in a while. Reminds me what they can do.

This beer was an honourable mention for my top 5 of the festival.

Tried on-tap at GABS in Melbourne. If there's ever justification for the category New Zealand Pilsener, this beer is it.

Pours an extremely pale straw colour with some hazing to it. Body is quite light, but holds a little coarse carbonation. Head is white, forming a very solid and frothy shape that leaves equally frothy lacing. Looks good.

Nose is fruity but dusty. It's probably the kiwifruit, but I get more peach characters coming off it early. Some greenery comes through as well, giving a slightly grassy kiwi hops character. It's very clean and very pleasant overall.

Light entry to the palate with a little tangy fruit developing into more distinct fragrant hops. Very bright throughout with a clean bitterness towards the back underlined by a very light, lagery finish. Long dry linger on the back with a little tickle of that bitterness continuing into the aftertaste. Feel is very light, perfectly suitable for the style.

It's a nice beer all up, and extremely drinkable. The fragrance from the kiwifruit is a nice addition, even if, in reality, you can't much improve on Croucher's original New Zealand pilsener.