The Cowboy
Evil Twin Brewing

From notes 5/12/13: Pours a pale and hazy (clears as it warms) gold with a huge (to the point of being difficult to pour) dense finely bubbled, cottony, off-white, lasting head that leaves nice chunks and webs of lace. Aroma is smoked meat, biscuity and caramel malts, lemony, spicy hops. Taste is smoke and pale malt, cracker, biscuit lemon and grass. Peppery in the finish. Somewhat sweet for most of the sip, a heavy, smoky bitterness develops in the finish to provide balance. All elements of the taste meld nicely and complement each other from start to finish and into the aftertaste. The pilsner components are there in what seems to me to be Czech Pilsner fashion. A Czech Pilsner with a smoky character. Mouthfeel is medium bodied and moderate-high carbonation; crisp and lively with spice.

 

 

Poured into a pilsener glass, the appearance was a semi-glossy ruddy orange color with a touch of carbonation seen rising to fill a finger and a half’s worth of foamy white head quickly dieing off. Messy lace. The aroma starts off with sweet grassy and citrusy hops. Subtle crisp earthy sweetness. Light malt contour. The flavor insists upon the smoke first and then ends up developing on into a nice blend between the grassy and citrusy bitter and earthy hops. Touch of sweet at the bottom. Crisp smoked to citrusy aftertaste and finish. On the palate, this one sat about a light to medium on the body with a pretty good sessionability about it. Fairly low carbonation. Good ABV, felt appropriate. Overall, pilsener with a smoked aspect about it, I see. Sure, why not. I get it Evil Twin and this is quite good.

 

 

 

From the 12 oz bottle in a snifter. This nicely balanced brew pours a
lightly cloudy amber tinged golden with a modest head of white foam that
settles to a thick ring, thin layer, and light lacing. Nose of subtle citrus notes
of lemon peel, sweet honey malts, and light smoke. Flavors follow the nose with
a citrus laden lemon zest flavor that carries into the middle with light smokey notes
and sweet honey malts with light breaded malts resting firmly on the rear. Nice mouth
feel, crisp, refreshing, medium high carbonation, and a bitter hop finish that rounds
it all out with a light smoke tinge. Nicely balanced and quaffable.

Cheers

12oz. bottle

Pours hazy golden amber with a creamy frothy white foam head. Smells lightly smoked and roasty with a subtle grilled meat quality to it, some dark toasted crackery bread malt, mild dried fig, pear, candied citrus, sweet spice, floral earthy grass and pine, with smoky roasted woody grains. Tastes smoky and roasty with some grilled meat, some dark toasted crackery bread malt, roasted woody grains, dried fig, fruity citrus, pear, some spice, with floral earthy grass and bitter pine. Feels medium-light bodied, creamy with moderate carbonation. Overall a nice smoked pilsner.

 

 

Pours a hazy golden color with a frothy, white head that leaves little chunks of lacing.

Smells of smoke notes and and some grainy malts.

Tastes of the smoke layered over a grainy malt base. Smoke leads off with mesquite notes. Next comes grainy malt with some sweetness. This gives way to some light, lemon zest. Earthy bitterness makes it way towards the end and lingers through thee finish along with some smoke.

Mouthfeel is medium with a smooth amount of carbonation.

Overall, this is a lightly smoky beer that hits plenty of good notes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not a fan of smoked beers, nor of lagers (pilsners) but this one was actually quite good.
It was hazy as hell, though. I didn't get any flavors that I associate with whitbiers, so I don't know why the haze was there.
The smoke was very subtle, and did not distract from the overall flavor.
I must say, this was the perfect choice of beverage for the tacos that I ate with it. They paired spectacularly well.

Color me surprised-- I'm giving this one a thumbs up!

 

 

Pours a pearly white large head with a slightly clouded, straw-coloured body. The scent is surprisingly flowery with a bit of citrus, and a slight undertone of noble hops. The taste is very smoky, completely like a campfire, with a bit of woodiness and a bit of sourness. The feel is alright though the smokiness really clings around longer than it's pleasant. Overall it's a pretty good beer though I can't quite grasp the hype.

12oz bottle, day 13 of the Craft Beer Advent Calendar - hmmmm, a smoked pilsner, interesting, and somehow initially appropriate for this thing we're doing here. The usual self-indulgent label text reminds me of 'I Wanna Be a Cowboy'.

This beer pours a hazy, pale golden yellow colour, with one finger of puffy, loosely foamy, and well-bubbly off-white head, which leaves a bit of splotchy collapsing iceshelf lace around the glass as it evenly subsides.

It smells of meaty and grainy pale malt, a bit of wet ash, some wee band-aid phenolic notes, musky apples and pears, and softly singed lemon wedge citrus. The taste is smoky, sure, but in a campfire meets dead cow or pig sort of way, with some middling earthy and slightly edgy yeast, a mixed bag of ash-tinged fruit bowl esters, and an emerging gasohol (not a good idea around this smoke, eh?) laced pale malt graininess.

The bubbles are adequate in their supportive and occasionally probing frothiness, the body a so-so medium weight, and trying oh so hard to be smooth, but c'mon, there's SMOKE abounding, people! It finishes off-dry, surprisingly, as that base pils seems to just want to cast off the yoke of smoke (new band name?), and spread its wings.

Overall, not a bad smoked beer, the potential in your face smokey acridity kept mostly in check, while the Continental-style pilsner actually gets to have a say, much in the manner of the Bamberg greats. After a modicum of acclimatization, this becomes easy enough to drink, and makes me want a cigar and some Bridge Mix. Oh, and Jeppe - you can be my cowgirl!

I really like how the smoke complements the nice pilsner character of The Cowboy. This is a quality brewery and they get this beer right. The hazy yellow body, fluffy white foam and archipelago lacing make this a good looking beer. There is enough hop bite to be true to the style and the smoke adds character. Tasty stuff, indeed.

Day 13 of the Craft Beer Advent Calendar.

L: A Hazy yellow with a nice white head, and a slight red tinge to it.

S: A smokeyness, that overpowers most things but there a slight hop smell to it as well.

T: Crisp with a fair amount of smoke to it. Slight bitterness from the hops but you can't taste very much hops.

F: Light bodied with a slight amount of carbination and leaves a nice smokey taste in your mouth.

O: A good beer by evil twin but kinda upset again that this beer wasn't made for just the calendar like it was supposed to be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

fantastic beer. golden color, smoky. tastes like an awesome campfire. perfect for a hot summer day, perfect for drinking while smoking some meat or grilling. one of my favorite everyday drinkers. i keep this stocked in the fridge.

12oz bottle

A — Pours a straw colored golden hue into the glass. There is a bit of a light white head on it that manages to stick around and leave some lacing behind.

S — Smells lightly smoky at first, similar to a campfire, not like an ashtray, its just a nice light smoky balance to the sweet and crisp pilsner malt character underneath.

T — Tastes nice and clean, notes of pilsner malts, little bit grainy and a touch of sweetness. The smoke component is very well balanced and not overdone, just a bit of an essence of smoke without dominating the palate.

M — Light in body, crisp and clean.

O — Very nice overall, a great example of what smoke can do for a beer.

 

I did not like this too well, but I can see how others could enjoy this beer.