Piels Light
Pabst Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once again, a thanks goes out to my local CANTrader, tone77, for another CAN that was not on my radar. The CANQuest (TM) is seemingly unstoppable!

From the CAN: "Preferred"; "Over a century of brewing skill, along with the finest ingredients obtainable, has resulted in a beer unique for its balance and delicious flavor."

Wow, talk about a fizzy yellow beer! Greg Koch would be amazed by this gem. I got a finger of fizzy bone-white head with low retention from the pour. Color was a pale lemon-yellow, resembling something quite akin to urine. Nose was filled with adjuncts, especially corn. It had a silage-like smell, but muted, in a watered down way. Mouthfeel was medium but the taste was almost non-existent. This was really light, to the point that I wondered if it might just float away out of my glass. Finish was dry, but not really satisfying. I felt like I wanted to drink a beer after that one.

Poured from a 12 oz. can. Has a very pale yellow color with a 1 inch head. Smell is mild, some notes of corn, not a lot going on. Taste is flavorless, nothing offensive, just plain and bland, no flavors at all standing out. Feels light in the mouth and has average drinkability. Overall there is nothing to recomend about this beer.

Poured a pale yellow color with a large whiten puffy head to start that showed poor retention.
Smell is slightly sweet, but not much else.
Taste is also sweet, but really lacking in any flovor.
Thin mouth feel with little taste retention.
Lawnmower beer.

Piels Light pours a beautiful light straw-gold body beneath a frothy head of bright white that drops readily but maintains a decent collar. No lacing is left about the glass. The nose is limited. In the mouth it's light bodied and crisp... fairly lackluster. The flavor is restrained as well, but it's well balanced. Unfortunately, it gives the impression of watered-down beer (which is obviously what it is, but most other light beers pull that off a little bit better). And as far as drinkability goes it ranks very high as a quaffer, but miserably as far as wanting more than one goes. It's unoffensive, but dull; keep looking, there are much better light beers out there, and at 110 calories it doesn't even score points there.

Well, the can for Piels Light says that this is the "preferred" light beer. Preferred exactly by whom, we will hopefully never know. If you thought regular Piels was as cheap and tasteless as a beer can be, you haven't tried its light counterpart.

Piels Light pours a pale yellow straw color. A very thin foam head forms and disappears very quickly. The smell, while not very assertive, smells like its loaded with adjuncts, and has that slightly musty/husky light beer smell to it. The mouthfeel is watery and fizzy. The first sip will leave you thinking if you took a sip of beer or water. There is graininess immediately evident though. There is a hint of overripe/rotten fruit somewhere in the taste as well. The small amount of hop flavor in here adds a slight bitterness to it. Throw in a tiny amount of alcohol taste in there to round out the "experience." The aftertaste continues on the light/watery trend, with some slight graininess and bitterness. Some DMS/veggie flavor comes through after a few moments. This beer has very little alcoholic warmth to finish it out.

Piels Light is the "old man's light beer" in my opinion. I wouldn't be surprised if Pabst starts halting production of some of its brands, beginning with the Piels line. If they do, they'll anger every elderly gentleman in Central NJ (senior citizen capital of the U.S. outside of Florida, IMO). To summarize: Piels is synoymous with H20.