New Style Pacific NW Pilsner
Russell Brewing Company

So, let's be up front here. I've been drinking beer long enough to enjoy and "Old Style" Pil in a stubby bottle. It's always been a sentimental favourite, so I hope the packaging here is whimsical and respectful. There is no doubt that this hopped up concoction is new style, and it's good. Let's not forget that pre-Molson, Sick's Brewery was a local independent operation that produced Old Style Pil - a reminder that everything new ain't all that new.

Appearance: A flash of thin foam dashing away into an unmuddied golden body with slow, evenly spaced beads of rising carbonation.

Aroma: Standing under a rain forest canopy, breaking open limes, grapes and grapefruit and sprinkling delicate peppery spice onto the pith. Grainy malts are initially there but only barely peeking through the toes of one’s naked feet. As the bottle empties and further breathes, pencil shavings and other wood chips enter the sanctuary (as does a small whiff of new tennis balls.

Taste: A sweet, slightly bittered delivery on the smoothest of wheels. Pilsner grains, while subdued in scent, now politely present themselves. On second ingestion the citrus aroma transfers more strongly to taste, and the grainy malts sprout into cereal tones. A certain sharpness snaps in the dry finish preceded by orange peppery warmth.

Palate: A lucid sheen concluding in a slightly rugged environment.

Overall: Something of hybrid: the offspring of the grainy, soft spice of a pilsner mated with the citrus twang of a mild, if a bit heavy, IPA.

 

A collaboration brew with Doan's, this one leads to some serious existential dread: for what is a pilsner if not a creation of Euro malt and hops. Add American varietals to the mix and don't you, as the fellow below points out as well, simply have an American lager?

A tasty American lager, certainly, beefy in hop flavour--there's a bit of peppery, spicy, herbal "noble-"ness, but it's paired with piney and citrus pith and slight dankness. Biscuit, cracker. Some cat pee, for sure! Light body. Moderate carbonation.

Delicious. I do wish they had gotten the ABV down a touch, because this would then become a really drinkable summer beer. The mid sixes make it a bit dangerous, though it remains deceptively drinkable. And the pot shot at Old Style (Molson) Pils with both the name and logo? Genius.

 

650ml bottle - an apparent collaboration with Doan's Craft Brewing, although I'm to take it that this was still made at Russell, who I suppose we can all blame for the cheap shot at Saskatchewan Pilsner, in both the side marketing label blurb, and rabbit and teepee festooned imagery.

This beer pours a clear, pale golden yellow colour, with three fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and somewhat creamy off-white head, which leaves some hanging chad lace around the glass as it slowly and evenly recedes.

It smells of bready and slightly meaty pale and caramel malt, mildly dank pine resin, ethereal orange and white grapefruit pith, a touch of muddled table-top pepper mill output, weirdly present yeast, and more understated herbal, leafy, and musty noble hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy pale malt, a still edgy yeastiness, kind of warm-seeming orange, lemon and lime rind, a receding musty pine forest acerbity, and more leafy, weedy, and kind of perfumed floral hoppiness.

The bubbles are fairly meek in their barely probe-worthy frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, sort of smooth, and even a bit creamy, though a surprisingly hint of old-school gasohol arrives mid-game (and temperature) to make a minor dent here. It finishes off-dry, but barely, as the malt sweetness more or less bleeds out, and the adequate green and citrusy hop notes snicker at their good fortune.

Overall, a generally agreeable version of the um, 'style' - oh, right, let me get to that - call yourself a 'pilsner', and purport to use New World hops not available or even preferred by the typical German or Bohemian title holders, and yeah, you're simply a sort of well-made APL around here - so sorry about that!