South Peak Pilsner
La Cumbre Brewing Co.

Pours translucent yellow with a slight white head. Aroma is fronted by the earthy lager yeast, there's also some toast, grass, and florals hanging about as well. Some lemon fruitiness appears as it starts to warm up. Flavor follows suit with moderate bitterness. Creamy, active, crisp mouthfeel. Overall, this is good.

 

In a ten ounce pils glass at the brewery.

Sudsy head, pale white in color. Golden/wheat body is impeccably clear. This beer looks impeccable. 5

Light lemon aroma around crackery, bready malts. Light and nice. 4.25

True to the nose, this is lemony---in the lightest of ways--- then a sweet breadiness that becomes more crackery. The finish leaves a floral flavor on the tongue. 4.25

After a bike ride, the first sip was refreshing. Light, crisp, light- to medium-bitterness, and a bubbly, tingly finish. Sweetness sweeps in and out. 4.5

Beautiful pils. God damn I've neglected this beer. This is summer drinkability. So damn good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sampled March 2011
The beer pours from the growler with a brilliantly clear, bright gold color that is crowned by a pale colored head. The aroma has as sweet grain note to it up front, but a spicy herbal note quickly adds a soft, balancing note to the nose. The malt contributes a pale cracker like character as well as touches of hay and even some honey like character that is also likely accentuated by the hops.

A firm bitterness as the beer first hits the palate leads into a soft, grainy sweetness in the middle. A herbal, slightly menthol like note mingles with the bitterness that again comes to the fore in a crisp, clean finish. The body has a nice lightness to it, without being too much so, and this is definitely nicely quaffable. A honey-like malt character becomes noticeable after a bit, but this is well tamed by the firm hop bite. Clean malt notes for the most part seem to have a touch of corn flavors to it at times.

This is so nice and quaffable, light bodied, but wiith enough texture to keep it just sticking to the palate; though the firm bitterness certainly dries out the finish considerably. This is definitely quite nice, if the corn notes were cleaned up a bit this would be an incredible example of a Pils.

 

 

 

Growler into a pils glass. Crystal clear pale golden body topped by a clinging, lasting head. Impressively clean nose with a big saaz presence. Spicy, floral and herbal hop aromatics are dominant, but there's a great pils malt backbone supporting the hops. Firmly bitter on the palate with a floral, herbal, somewhat mineral bite. Bready, doughy pils malt softens the bitterness a bit in the finish. This is impressive stuff, one of the finer American-brewed pilsners I've tried. To my palate it's more German than Czech due to the substantial bitterness and clean yeast profile.