Seeraüber
Microbrasserie Le Corsaire

 

 

I was unpacking some boxes and stumbled across a bunch of cans for my collection, and the corresponding reviews that I seem to have forgotten to enter.

Thanks Zorprime for the trade, we should do it again. Another can for my shelf.

Poured with a huge foamy, soapy-looking head of white bubbles. Liquid itself is lemon yellow in color. Smells quite sweet, slightly like Sweet and Low. The taste is sweet, kind of corn syrup-like. From the label: Pale lager, straw in color with a smooth mellow flavor and a nice light hoppy finish. I'm not getting any hoppy finish. Maybe a pale wheat, it is slightly cloudy, but not much clean pilsner taste. It has a bit of a sour, metallic aftertaste.
Pretty average for an adjunct lager, below average foe a german pilsener.

Seeraüber has bubbles so thick I thought they were fragments of... oh wait, those are particles of something. Yuck. Those shouldn't be in there, whatever they are. I'm now looking at this golden, otherwise shinning example of a pilsner with a good deal of apprehension. And it doesn't help that its head looks like a moldy, tattered rag.

I picked it up. I smelled it once. I put it down. I'm leery to pick it up again. The sickeningly synthetic odor of processed corn syrup and milled corn grain is redolent of some of the most atrocious swill from some of the world's worst offending breweries. It is foul, and nothing close to the time-honored, reputable lagers of Germany's eminent breweries.

The beer had a faintly sour tang in its aroma, a cider vinegar-like acidity that would be most welcomed in a gueuze, but is most undesirable for a pilsner. It's the sign of an infection. Or an inept brewer. The otherwise clean and flavourful taste of pale malts is still perceptible but it requires overlooking the puckering tartness that accompanies it.

Someone get this beer some antibiotics. The tart, cider-like acidity is sharp and stinging, driven forcefully into the palate by a brawny, tightly assembled team of bubbles. I can only speculate on what a refreshing, quaffable pilsner this promises to be once healthy. Meanwhile, the tastes of cider, cider vinegar, cheese and yeast spoil the ballot.

As a pilsner this makes an absolutely awful beer. But we don't see gueuze on the shelves around these parts, and ironically I actually found the beer oddly enjoyable, if only to pretend it was a designedly sour Belgian lambic. Of course it was not and obviously this new brewery has some kinks to work out. And here's hoping for their sake they do.

Another CAN which, when opened, just seemed to explode with beer! CAN you dig it?!?

From the CAN: "Straw in color with a smooth mellow flavor and a nice light hoppy finish." et en Francais.

Loads of carbonation in this one! My initial pour had to be backed off as the head was foaming dangerously near the top of the glass. Settling in, I had a finger-and-a-half of rocky, bone-white head with decent retention. Color was a VERY slightly hazy sunshine yellow, just hazy enough to note. Nose was certainly lager, but not a better lager. It had notes of skunk, cheese, grass, and straw. I would guess that their fermentation took place at too high a temperature. It had promise, but its execution was lacking. Mouthfeel was thin-to-medium with a definite cheese taste on the tongue as noted by a previous reviewer. I would drink this with some cheddar, no problem, but it still does not improve its standing as a biere. Pardonnez-moi, un lager. It is all part of the necessary commitment to the CANQuest, but it does not mean that I have to like it. The finish just lingered with a sour, tart, cheesy flavor that I CANnot get behind. This definitely does not merit cooler space!

The extreme (and lingering) finish makes me realize that they should simply reclassify it as a a "Geueze". It is a great Geueze, but a lousy Pilsener.

Can: Poured a golden color pilsner with a large frothy white head with good retention and some very good lacing. Aroma of cereal with some vegetables notes. Taste is not very enticing with some cereal and some unrefined grain with some rotten vegetables. Body is about average with good carbonation. Not very good.

Tasted in August 2009.

This is typical pilsner looking beer. Lots of carbonation coming up. The head is soapy looking. The smell is surprising. I get some malts and cereal and some cheese! By research, some english type hops are responsible for that... The taste is not good... way too much cheese. I don't like it. Thin bodied. Dry. Ordinary beer...