Pivo Bublina
Ploughshare Brewing Company

 

what a sensational beer, one of their medal winners, and rightfully so. a pretty classic strong helles lager but brewed with some honey too. its bright and golden in color, holds an inch of white head, slowly settling, lots of bubbles, looks the part. it smells great, floral honey, orange blossom type, crackery german malt, and a little but of a grassy hop for balancing purposed. simple and clean, but quite dynamic too, the honey really does add a lot. its not so much that it tastes like honey, but it changes the chemistry a little, the malt seems sweeter and richer, while retaining its classic german bready complexion. there is an old world german nature to this, it would pass muster on any of those scales, but the honey and slightly stronger overall nature of this make it truly distinct. this may have been my favorite of the beers we had at ploughshare on our visit, its all the right bits and then some. great carbonation, good body, clean finish. absolutely top quality, well deserving of its hardware...