Pils
River North Brewery

Canned on 5/3/22 - Poured on 8/28/22.

Very little head. Taste was okay but just flat.

Poured from a can at fridge temp. Pours a nice crisp yellow with an inch of white head. Good lacing after the head fades. Nose is wheat, honey, grass, slight hops, and a nice earthy note. The taste is really smooth. Starts off on the sweet side - candy, malts, honey. Definitely has a slight hoppy bitterness towards the end. A grassy, almost funky, note remains on the aftertaste. Very nice with a light mouthfeel!

NICE MILD PILNER BEER LIGHT TASTE SMOOTH

Pours a foggy golden-yellow with two fingers of white foam. Aroma is wafery, biscuity, and crackery malts, black pepper, and grassy hops. The aroma is like taking a bite out of a dry saltine cracker. Flavor profile is crackery, wafery, biscuity, bready, nutty, and earthy malts with grassy hops. Malts are the storyline, starting off sweet, with a dry, biting finish. Mouth feel is medium-thin with a consistent and crisp texture. Overall, a crisp and dry pilsner that features malts throughout.

Served in a 15.5oz Speigalau tulip from a 12oz can.

L- A pour into a tulip glass only developed a scant white head that faded to a doily in about a minute. Color is pale straw and about 80% transparent.

N- Rising white bread is the first note that hits the nose with a hint of malt. Lemon peel and green tinged hops are also present.

T- The beer presents an interesting lightly bitter hop note wrapped in a neutral type malt that reveals no sweetness as a package. It almost has a flinty character and is nicely balanced between hop bitterness and a malt that has big white bread notes. The malt is light and a bit yeasty but never fruity , just bread.

M- Mouthfeel starts with the refreshing hop and a nice clean medium light body feel as it drys out toward the finish. Carbonation is on the light side and fine bubbled. Quite an easy drinker.

O- Quite nice. A bit less complexity and bitterness from the hops and a mellow malt make this a toned down version of some of the great German Pilsners. This lighter feel is not achieved at the expense of more sweetness like some craft lagers and of course Helles. This is rotation worthy this summer.

EDIT: Subsequent tastings reveal a more potent hop bitterness and a less crushable demeanor.

 

 

 

 

Really nice lager. Great crispness for the style. A lot like a European take on American Lager.

12 oz. Can
Canned On: 10.18.17

Pours a nice clean/clear golden pale yellow color, pretty nice carbonation, with a nice thick/creamy one-finger white head, which leaves some sticky lacing behind. The nose is malty, yeasty, hoppy, with a nice citrus complex (lemon, slight grapefruit), grassy. The taste is malty, yeasty, hoppy, with a nice citrus complex (lemon, slight grapefruit), grassy, nice little sweetness. Medium body, ABV is hidden nicely. Overall, a tasty brew.

 

 

what i like about this one is that there is actually flavor to the lager yeast! its not so boring and dumbed down, there is a nice crackery even bready lager yeast taste in here, and in the absence of much hops, i think its a nice layer, more prominent here than is something like an oskar blues mamas pils, which doesnt taste like much at all. the malt is fresh here, and not overly light too, as simple as it is, the ingredients come through clean and well balanced, this is dry, well carbonated, and overall rather well made. its also super safe and boring for a brewery that used to do awesome hopped up begian pales, nuanced strong belgian stouts, and beers that nobody else was making. i understand the business necessity to make more approachable beer, but now they are just like everyone else, and in a lineup of even ten decent pils types, this would be hard to pick out from any other. thats cool if thats what you are going for, but i miss the adventurous nature of the beers they used to push. this and the ipa could have been made by anyone, is river north losing their identity in their effort to sell more beer?

Revisited 12-29-19

Original ratings: 3.0 3.75 4.25 3.75 3.5

The appearance is greatly improved with a thicker, more lasting head and some lively carbonation. All other factors -- smell, taste, and feel comes across the same.

This is a rock-solid Czech-styled pilsner. The taste especially sells this beer. If your taste buds tire of hazy/New England this and pastry/lactose that, and over-hyped and hopped and adjuncted everything else, this beer makes for a fine centering beer...
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Faint, pale yellow color to the body; wispy head that starts out big yet quickly dissipates to patchy globs of thin foam floating atop the beer. Grassy aroma; light, biscuit-like grain scent. Light cracker malt flavor with a strong hop bitterness at the finish with some lingering toasted grain notes in the background; peppery. Medium-light in body; crisp and tingly on the palate; some general warmth.

The marketing is a little weird in that the can label clearly states pils yet the description calls it a Rocky Mountain lager. To me, the beer closely resembles a Czech pilsner in color, scent, and taste. Except for the abysmal head and head retention marring the appearance, this is a pretty solid pils/lager...