Gochugaru Pepper Pilsner
Spice Trade Brewing / Yak & Yeti

i love that these guys did a four pack of different pepper pils beers, this one is the pepper i am least familiar with. it probably has the most flavor of the three i had without over the top heat, but the base beer is totally flat, dead, still, and it kills the experience a little bit for me, i was ready to love this, and the pepper aspect is wonderful, but there is no life to this at all. all three of them i had were under carbonated a bit, but this one was the worst offender, i wonder if there is something in this pepper specifically that would hurt the bubbles. i get light citrus to the pepper, a full mouth and throat warmth but it fades fast, and no real burn. maybe a hint of smoke in the pepper profile too, even a black pepper element, pretty complex really, but the base beer sags. its overly malty to me, with some residual sweetness too that seems out of place for the style, and it feels almost watered down without any carbonation. the yeast seems weird where it was asset to the jalapeno version, and overall execution is not great on this, despite the pepper part being both interesting and delicious. this was arguably the coolest pepper profile of the three i had, but the worst beer overall somehow. still, a really cool project and i am glad i got to get into some of them, thanks to my buddy for sharing!