Brooklyn Pilsner | Brooklyn Brewery
Brewed by:
Brooklyn Brewery
New York, United States
brooklynbrewery.com
Style: German Pilsner
Alcohol by volume (ABV): 5.10%
Availability: Year-round
Notes / Commercial Description:
Brooklyn Pilsner is a refreshing golden lager beer, brewed in the style favored by New York’s pre-prohibition brewers. In the 1840’s, the pilsner style emerged from central Europe to become the world’s most popular style of beer. Like its ancestors, Brooklyn Pilsner is traditionally brewed from the finest German two-row barley malts. German-grown Perle and Hallertauer hops provide a crisp, snappy bitterness and fresh, floral aroma. The flavor of the malt comes through in the finish. We ferment Brooklyn Pilsner at cool temperatures, and then give it a long, gentle maturation (lagering), which results in a beer of superior complexity and smoothness. We believe that you will find there to be none finer. Unlike mass-marketed so-called pilsners, Brooklyn Pilsner does not contain cheap fillers such as corn or rice, nor does it contain any preservatives or stabilizers. Brooklyn Pilsner is the real thing.
Added by UncleJimbo on 03-06-2001
HISTOGRAM
View: Beers | Place Reviews
Ratings: 1,104 | Reviews: 504
3.67/5 rDev +0.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
look: 4 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
3.09/5 rDev -15.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
3.57/5 rDev -2.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5
4.08/5 rDev +11.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4
Decanted from a 12 oz (355 ml) brown bottle into a conical pint glass; best by 2019.
A: Pours a crystal clear, golden color, a half inch, foamy white head, big bubbles at times but solid retention, and rings and rings of complex, Brussels lacing.
S: Aromas of grasses and grains. ?Honeydew melon note.
T: Semidry. Follows the nose. Definite honeydew melon note. Light bitterness.
M: Light bodied with solid effervescence. Refreshing.
O: Not a big Pilsner drinker, but this is a solidly constructed and executed version of the style.
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look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4
Decanted from a 12 oz (355 ml) brown bottle into a conical pint glass; best by 2019.
A: Pours a crystal clear, golden color, a half inch, foamy white head, big bubbles at times but solid retention, and rings and rings of complex, Brussels lacing.
S: Aromas of grasses and grains. ?Honeydew melon note.
T: Semidry. Follows the nose. Definite honeydew melon note. Light bitterness.
M: Light bodied with solid effervescence. Refreshing.
O: Not a big Pilsner drinker, but this is a solidly constructed and executed version of the style.
536 characters
3.37/5 rDev -7.9%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.25
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.25
3.75/5 rDev +2.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
3.6/5 rDev -1.6%
look: 3.25 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
A really good representative of the type.
41 characters
look: 3.25 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
A really good representative of the type.
41 characters
4.08/5 rDev +11.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4.25
Best By Nov 2018
12 oz. bottle poured into a pilsner glass.
This one pours bright gold and crystal clear with a two finger white foam head that is fairly thick and has good retention. Lacing is spotty but there.
The nose is a little weak, grainy with corn and some grassy hops underneath. A nice aroma but I wish it was stronger. Tasting malty, clean and mostly dry, the grassy hop flavor is moderately bitter. Cracker and corn (not heavy) come through before a short clean finish with only a small, slightly bitter aftertaste. Body wise we are at medium-light, carbonation is low-medium, I think it could be a touch more crisp. There isn't much but it has some gritty chewiness to it.
Drinkable and fairly refined. This is no slouch.
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look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4.25
Best By Nov 2018
12 oz. bottle poured into a pilsner glass.
This one pours bright gold and crystal clear with a two finger white foam head that is fairly thick and has good retention. Lacing is spotty but there.
The nose is a little weak, grainy with corn and some grassy hops underneath. A nice aroma but I wish it was stronger. Tasting malty, clean and mostly dry, the grassy hop flavor is moderately bitter. Cracker and corn (not heavy) come through before a short clean finish with only a small, slightly bitter aftertaste. Body wise we are at medium-light, carbonation is low-medium, I think it could be a touch more crisp. There isn't much but it has some gritty chewiness to it.
Drinkable and fairly refined. This is no slouch.
740 characters
3.38/5 rDev -7.7%
look: 3.25 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.25
A clean slight citrus pilsner. Pilsner finish but just slight. Refreshing.
Taste rating in words: A cold spray of the shower first thing in the morning.
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look: 3.25 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.25
A clean slight citrus pilsner. Pilsner finish but just slight. Refreshing.
Taste rating in words: A cold spray of the shower first thing in the morning.
153 characters
3.52/5 rDev -3.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5
2.26/5 rDev -38.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 1.25 | feel: 2.25 | overall: 2.25
Ok, I'm doing this one from memory, but here goes:
Brooklyn Pilsner is a quality product made from good ingredients, but my experience was that the bitterness was out of control. Years ago I bought a sixpack of this because I liked the regular Brooklyn Lager, which I would drink sometimes if I couldn't find Yuengling Traditional or Sam Adams on tap. There is no question I am an Amber Lager guy most of the time, so I thought their flagship was a good quality product that was just a bit too bitter and hoppy for my taste (drinkable, even enjoyable, but not optimal). Since Pilsners are supposed to be lighter, and often turn out to be more delicate overall than Amber lagers, I thought that Brooklyn's Pils might turn out to be the best product in their lineup for me specifically I was wrong. Their Amber Lager was more bitter than optimal for me. But their Pils turned out to be undrinkable. The details:
The appearance was entincing. A large stable head that looked like I could float the cap on it, and a dark gold color that (to me at least) promised good things)
The smell was pleasant too. Clean sligthtly sweet malts and strong, assertive, slightly floral hops.
The taste was impossible though. the malts were again, clean, and slightly sweet, but like I said in the intro, this beer was impossibly bitter. As in this is the only beer I can ever remember trying where I had to pour it out because it was too bitter for me to finish. Thinking maybe this was an acquired taste, or maybe I was just a wimp, I let my 6pack sit in the fridge for another day or so then tried again. Same result. I had to pour my bottle out. It was literally undrinkable for me. But I hate wasting beer. So I decided I'd cook with it. I used 2 more bottles to boil a dungeness crab. The cooked crab was also too bitter to eat! I shit you not. I've never experienced anything like that before or since. I've cooked with beer for years, everything from MGD, to Bass, to Guiness and never has any other beer I've cooked with imparted any noticeable bitterness to the finished product. But Brooklyn Pilsner did somehow. I had to toss the crab. Still waste not, want not. I tried to pawn the last 2 bottles off on my unsuspecting mother who typically drinks manlier beer than I do and has a better tolerance for bitterness (she loves black coffee with no sugar I can barely drink coffee at all even drowned in milk and sugar). Same result, She couldn't finish a bottle either, and I had to throw the last bottle away.
Feel: Nothing wrong with the mouthfeel. If this beer wasn't impossibly bitter, it would be a great session beer. But given that it was impossibly bitter and the taste lingered, drinkability was not good either.
Overall, if they used the exact same recipe but didn't go absolutely insane dry-hopping the stuff (I'm assuming that is how the produced the impossible-to-drink bitterness that I recall from my sole sixpack of Brooklyn Pils, their website lists 2 varities of very good pilsner hops used for this beer, and then mentions that they dry-hop which is not, to my knowledge, particularly common for this style of beer), I'm pretty sure this would have met my general expectations and been one of the 3 best pilsners I'd ever tried (the 2 outstanding ones I've had to date are Czechvar and Urquell), but instead, what I got was something too bitter to drink. Still maybe I am a wimp. Or maybe I got a bad batch. If you see this individual bottles or on tap it may be worth a try. But my experience with it was definitely not good.
3,547 characters
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 1.25 | feel: 2.25 | overall: 2.25
Ok, I'm doing this one from memory, but here goes:
Brooklyn Pilsner is a quality product made from good ingredients, but my experience was that the bitterness was out of control. Years ago I bought a sixpack of this because I liked the regular Brooklyn Lager, which I would drink sometimes if I couldn't find Yuengling Traditional or Sam Adams on tap. There is no question I am an Amber Lager guy most of the time, so I thought their flagship was a good quality product that was just a bit too bitter and hoppy for my taste (drinkable, even enjoyable, but not optimal). Since Pilsners are supposed to be lighter, and often turn out to be more delicate overall than Amber lagers, I thought that Brooklyn's Pils might turn out to be the best product in their lineup for me specifically I was wrong. Their Amber Lager was more bitter than optimal for me. But their Pils turned out to be undrinkable. The details:
The appearance was entincing. A large stable head that looked like I could float the cap on it, and a dark gold color that (to me at least) promised good things)
The smell was pleasant too. Clean sligthtly sweet malts and strong, assertive, slightly floral hops.
The taste was impossible though. the malts were again, clean, and slightly sweet, but like I said in the intro, this beer was impossibly bitter. As in this is the only beer I can ever remember trying where I had to pour it out because it was too bitter for me to finish. Thinking maybe this was an acquired taste, or maybe I was just a wimp, I let my 6pack sit in the fridge for another day or so then tried again. Same result. I had to pour my bottle out. It was literally undrinkable for me. But I hate wasting beer. So I decided I'd cook with it. I used 2 more bottles to boil a dungeness crab. The cooked crab was also too bitter to eat! I shit you not. I've never experienced anything like that before or since. I've cooked with beer for years, everything from MGD, to Bass, to Guiness and never has any other beer I've cooked with imparted any noticeable bitterness to the finished product. But Brooklyn Pilsner did somehow. I had to toss the crab. Still waste not, want not. I tried to pawn the last 2 bottles off on my unsuspecting mother who typically drinks manlier beer than I do and has a better tolerance for bitterness (she loves black coffee with no sugar I can barely drink coffee at all even drowned in milk and sugar). Same result, She couldn't finish a bottle either, and I had to throw the last bottle away.
Feel: Nothing wrong with the mouthfeel. If this beer wasn't impossibly bitter, it would be a great session beer. But given that it was impossibly bitter and the taste lingered, drinkability was not good either.
Overall, if they used the exact same recipe but didn't go absolutely insane dry-hopping the stuff (I'm assuming that is how the produced the impossible-to-drink bitterness that I recall from my sole sixpack of Brooklyn Pils, their website lists 2 varities of very good pilsner hops used for this beer, and then mentions that they dry-hop which is not, to my knowledge, particularly common for this style of beer), I'm pretty sure this would have met my general expectations and been one of the 3 best pilsners I'd ever tried (the 2 outstanding ones I've had to date are Czechvar and Urquell), but instead, what I got was something too bitter to drink. Still maybe I am a wimp. Or maybe I got a bad batch. If you see this individual bottles or on tap it may be worth a try. But my experience with it was definitely not good.
3,547 characters
4.01/5 rDev +9.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
Look - poured from a 12 oz bottle. Lemon yellow in color, large head that dissipates quickly with virtually no lacing left behind.
Smell - malts, some light hops. None of the skunkiness or unpleasant odors from adjuncts, which in itself is a huge plus.
Taste - as advertised, crisp and simple, malt forward taste and very clean finish. Flavor is light, but everything is there.
Feel - light bodied, medium-high carbonation, and standard ABV at 5.1%.
Overall - good pilsners really don't get much better than this. The style is simple, but a good one really comes around once every blue moon (no pun intended). I can drink this one all day long.
644 characters
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
Look - poured from a 12 oz bottle. Lemon yellow in color, large head that dissipates quickly with virtually no lacing left behind.
Smell - malts, some light hops. None of the skunkiness or unpleasant odors from adjuncts, which in itself is a huge plus.
Taste - as advertised, crisp and simple, malt forward taste and very clean finish. Flavor is light, but everything is there.
Feel - light bodied, medium-high carbonation, and standard ABV at 5.1%.
Overall - good pilsners really don't get much better than this. The style is simple, but a good one really comes around once every blue moon (no pun intended). I can drink this one all day long.
644 characters
4.29/5 rDev +17.2%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
Glad to see this Pilsner now in a 12 oz. can. Thanks to Brooklyn Brewery, this is an excellent Pilsner amongst a sea of IPAs on store shelves. Light bodied but plenty of hop taste. I think it's preferable to their more widely distributed (at least in my area) Lager. I enjoy IPAs but also the alternative of a well-done historic style such as this product.
356 characters
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
Glad to see this Pilsner now in a 12 oz. can. Thanks to Brooklyn Brewery, this is an excellent Pilsner amongst a sea of IPAs on store shelves. Light bodied but plenty of hop taste. I think it's preferable to their more widely distributed (at least in my area) Lager. I enjoy IPAs but also the alternative of a well-done historic style such as this product.
356 characters
4.39/5 rDev +19.9%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5
Chilled Brooklyn pilsner was poured from a bottle into a pint glass, mid-June of 2018. This beer has a slight attractive aroma. The head is not very long lasting, there is minimal lacing. The body is a healthy light gold. Now for the good part. The flavor is a memorable hop-forward experience. The mild malt and european hop character are well integrated. There is a healthy bittterness that lingers after swallowing. This might be my favorite Pilsner style beer in the New York City metro area.
504 characters
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5
Chilled Brooklyn pilsner was poured from a bottle into a pint glass, mid-June of 2018. This beer has a slight attractive aroma. The head is not very long lasting, there is minimal lacing. The body is a healthy light gold. Now for the good part. The flavor is a memorable hop-forward experience. The mild malt and european hop character are well integrated. There is a healthy bittterness that lingers after swallowing. This might be my favorite Pilsner style beer in the New York City metro area.
504 characters
4.07/5 rDev +11.2%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
3.63/5 rDev -0.8%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
Poured from 12 oz bottle into pilsner glass. Pours a 1" white head that drops rapidly with very little lacing. Color light golden with moderate streaming carbonation. Aroma of floral and herbal hops and lightly toasted malt. Mouthfeel is light and crisp. Flavor is led by the hops and seems a little weak in balancing malt sweetness from start to finish. Overall it is very good but not outstanding.
399 characters
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
Poured from 12 oz bottle into pilsner glass. Pours a 1" white head that drops rapidly with very little lacing. Color light golden with moderate streaming carbonation. Aroma of floral and herbal hops and lightly toasted malt. Mouthfeel is light and crisp. Flavor is led by the hops and seems a little weak in balancing malt sweetness from start to finish. Overall it is very good but not outstanding.
399 characters
3.75/5 rDev +2.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
3.68/5 rDev +0.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
3.75/5 rDev +2.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
A-A very clear golden golden color with a nice head and lacing
A-Aroma has hop and grainy hints
T-Taste follows the nose with hop and grainy flavors
M-A light bodied well carbonated beer
O-A decent pilsner
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look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
A-A very clear golden golden color with a nice head and lacing
A-Aroma has hop and grainy hints
T-Taste follows the nose with hop and grainy flavors
M-A light bodied well carbonated beer
O-A decent pilsner
205 characters
3.35/5 rDev -8.5%
look: 4 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3 | overall: 4.25
From a 12 oz. bottle in a winter seasonal variety pack
Served chilled in a weizen glass
Appearance: Unfiltered hazy pale gold color with obvious floaties, three-fingers of long-lasting frothy cream-colored head, decent lacing
Aroma: Light nose, but mostly malts
Taste/Flavor: Very nice mellow flavor, quite more than expected from the nose. Well-balanced. No strange after-taste, seemingly unusual for this style
Mouthfeel: Medium-thin body, moderate carbonation, mostly smooth crisp finish, very nice on the palate
Overall: This is a superior pilsner. For those who care about such things, it contains no adjuncts such as rice or corn, neither does it contain any stabilizers or preservatives. I wonder if perhaps this is why I found it preferable to most pilseners made with adjuncts and preservatives??
815 characters
look: 4 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3 | overall: 4.25
From a 12 oz. bottle in a winter seasonal variety pack
Served chilled in a weizen glass
Appearance: Unfiltered hazy pale gold color with obvious floaties, three-fingers of long-lasting frothy cream-colored head, decent lacing
Aroma: Light nose, but mostly malts
Taste/Flavor: Very nice mellow flavor, quite more than expected from the nose. Well-balanced. No strange after-taste, seemingly unusual for this style
Mouthfeel: Medium-thin body, moderate carbonation, mostly smooth crisp finish, very nice on the palate
Overall: This is a superior pilsner. For those who care about such things, it contains no adjuncts such as rice or corn, neither does it contain any stabilizers or preservatives. I wonder if perhaps this is why I found it preferable to most pilseners made with adjuncts and preservatives??
815 characters
Brooklyn Pilsner from Brooklyn Brewery
Beer rating:
3.66 out of
5 with
1,104 ratings
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