San Miguel Pale Pilsen
San Miguel Brewery Inc.

 

 

Unfortunately in many bars in the Philippines you are going to be a bit limited for choice. So this often becomes the go to more by default than anything else. For the positives though - It is very drinkable, it's refreshing in hot Philippines weather, goes down easy, you could drink a number in a session and it won't give you a hangover like a redhorse or other cheap beer will. It is also extremely cheap so it's a bit hard to be too critical of it. I enjoy it for the above, but overall it's just an ok beer, nothing remarkable.

 

 

 

Not sure if this is the same beer that is listed as San Miguel lager so thought I would give it a review. This one I liked quite a bit more then my last San Miguel lager experience. May be a beer age issue....

Poured from a bottle into a pint glass

Appearance – The beer pours a clear lighter golden color with a one finger head of white foam. The head has a fair level of retention, slowly fading over time to leave a decent sum of foamy lace on the sides of the glass.

Smell – The aroma of the brew is strong of a bready and caramel smell with just a touch of hay and herb.

Taste – The taste is much as one may anticipate from the nose. It begins with a bready malt flavor that is matched with a moderate showing of caramel. As the taste advances the caramel fades a tad while some very light herbal hop and some grain comes to the tongue. A bit of corn syrup joins the mix and with the bready, grain, caramel, and very light hop which take the taste to the end, one is left with a very middle of the road pilsner taste to linger on the tongue.

Mouthfeel – The body of the brew is medium to light with a carbonation level that is average to slightly higher. Overall the feel is good for the style and makes for an easy drinker.

Overall – An alright pils, but nothing all the exceptional. Middle to slightly loweroverall.

 

San Miguel Pale Pilsen is as crystal clear and pale as any lager you can imagine. The head is rocky, white, and reasonably lasting.

This San Miguel smells like the same combination of dried grains and white bread as almost every other mainstream lager. It also has a corn flavored sweetness to it coupled with a very generic fresh fruit character. Nothing I can specifically nail down but something musty and generic. The finish is likewise vague and peppery in its hoppiness.

On the tongue, San Miguel Pale Pilsen is smooth, crisp, and refreshing. It tastes more like dried grains and general mustiness and less like soda crackers or fresh baked bread. The center seems to thin out somewhat, taking on more musty flavors of ripe sweet corn. The finish gives me a dry, earthy, peppery sort of hop finish.

In a lot of ways, this has the qualities I'd look for in a pilsner. After all, it is crisp, clean, and refreshing. Aside from corn and the odd musty, dusty flavor there's not a lot of negative flavors going on. That being said, the flavors just don't balance each other as well as they could, hence the lower score.

330 ml can, in Bali, brewed under licence by PT Delta, Indonesia. ABV is 4.9%. Pale golden colour, low white head. Weak aroma, some "dusty" malts. Fizzy mouthfeel. Bland pale lager flavour, at least it is not too sweet. Boring.

Saw this in a 6-pack at the 99¢ Store for $3.99 and thought to myself, "How bad can it be?" Well... it's not the worst, but it's not great either. Think Miller Lite but worse, and there's your flavor. For the price I got it for, it's fine. Maybe good if you need cheap beer for a party and don't want to spend the dough, but even there you can do better.

 

 

330ml bottle, can't see a date on it. Poured into a tulip.
Look: Very clear gold, about .5 cm of bubbly white head falls back to nothing much very quickly.
Smell: A little honey, maybe a little corn and grain, a touch of grassy hop. Pleasant if a little plain,
Taste: A little grainy, a touch of grass and something a little metallic in there as well.
Feel: It's a little thin and watery, only a touch of carbonation on the back of the palate. Dry finish.

Clear gold with barely any head. Pils malt on the nose, with a hint of earthiness. A little cherry. Flavor has caramel, I feel confident in saying this is quite oxidized. No date. Has a little bitterness and comes across as sweet from the oxidation. Decent carbonation, dont know why the head was so pathetic with a regular poor.

 

 

 

C'mon, we gotta get this rating up, at least a little, if for nothing else so that the ratings on this site are reliable. Yeah, it's certainly no great shakes, but there's *no way* in any kind of sensible ratings system it ranks lower than freakin' Sapporo P.! Have you actually ever tasted that? Only *possible* use for it other than to clear out your drain is as an emetic (for those of you not in the medical trade, that's a vomit-inducer...)
Also, in Manila, 50 cents for a S. Mig, 1.00 for a Coke, 1.50 for a bottled water. Trust me, when you're in Manila those are the only choices that aren't going to give you the runs for a month so, duh!!

i'm generally an real ale drinker, but in indonesia this pilsner stlye saved the day. med carbonation, light but rounded mouth feel, slightly more yeasty than some, with a little more of a bitter finish that i like. compared to the awful chemical cocktail "bintang", this was happiness in a glass. and i learned the history off its beginnings in manila....