Pilsner
Brooklyn Brewery

mikeinportc from New York

3.64/5  rDev -0.8%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 3.75

BB date of 12/21 or is it 2/12/21? (guessing - a little smudged)

Translucent medium gold, with one finger of white head.

Smell is a lightly sweet floral scent (goldenrod/bedstraw) , slight herbal aroma (marjoram?) , and light crackery malt.

Taste is light bread crust (fresh-out-of-the-oven white bread) , some of that sweet floral element ^, finishing with a light spicy/bitter herbal flavor. Moderate lingering bitterness.

Feel is light, but not watery , with moderate, very fine, sharp carbonation bite.

Overall, nothing "Wow!" , but it isn't meant to be. If you're in the mood for a clean, crisp lager, it's worth a try. I could use a little less of that herbal flavor, but that's nitpicking. On another occasion, I might welcome that. ;) *shrug* - try it yourself. :)

Sep 08, 2020

maxpower from Missouri

3.4/5  rDev -7.4%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.25

12 oz bottle pours a clear yellow color with a good fizzy white head that sticks around. Light grassy and flowery aromas. Light flavor of cracker and grains. Pretty good.

Sep 05, 2020

Maxkelly9

3.54/5  rDev -3.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5

On draft in pint glass. Pale, see through color. Crisp with light hops. Good pilsner. Easy drinker with slightly bitter follow. Would get again but wouldn’t take home.

Dec 19, 2019

Mark-Leggett from Missouri

3.97/5  rDev +8.2%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Poured from a bottle. Straw in color with a good sized white head and pretty good lacing. Smells of grain and floral. Smells like what you expect from a pilsner which is good. Flavor is also what is expected in a good pilsner. Not too light bodied, just a really good example of a pilsner.

Dec 04, 2019

Urtravel from Pennsylvania

4.56/5  rDev +24.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

L: clear, pale, lively with a finger head and moderate lace
S: fruity/floral on front end with sweet roastiness back end that balances out extreme well
T: follows smell but with an added lively carbonation that tingles the tongue
F: crisp, clean, refreshing balanced; does not overpower any taste buds but pulls them all together for superb finish
O: a great balanced beer with a liveliness that invites another one

Jun 15, 2019

johnreggie from New York

2.41/5  rDev -34.3%
look: 3 | smell: 2 | taste: 2.25 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.75

From a 12oz bottle dated BB 11/19. Pours lively and decent gold/ amber color. Body is extremely light, and virtually no flavor up front. Decent dry finish with some malt/cracker taste. Noticed this is brewed in Utica NY. That’s quite a distance from Brooklyn NYC. Also was the only “craft” beer on 3 shelves of otherwise InBev exclusive. I’m a bit concerned. Sorachi Ace, their amazing Saison, brewed in Brooklyn is one of my all time favorites.

May 30, 2019

Nass from Florida

3.82/5  rDev +4.1%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5

It looks like your typical pilsner in the pilsner glass. The carbonation is full on with soft white fluffy head. The aroma is some cooked broccoli & boiled cob corn. The taste is white bread, grains, cooked broccoli, slight cracker, there is some mild bitterness on the backend. Brooklyn Brewery pilsner is tasty but there lager could use some tweaks here & there. Cheers! B

Apr 08, 2019

BeerBobber from Nevada

3.99/5  rDev +8.7%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Clear golden color with streaming bubbles. Two plus fingers of a nice thick soapy white head. Nice slicks of lacing on my glass.

Very clean malts, barley water smell. A faint hint of some floral hops coming out.

Taste is very light with a bit of a hint of grassiness. the hops do come through way in the back and provide a very nice balance to the malts.

Mouth feel is very light and finishes crisply with just enough refreshing wetness to wet the old whistle.

Damn fine pilsner!This beer would be so easy to crush several in a row. Pairing with food would be so easy, eat food drink beer. If I could find this in a 15 pack here in Las Vegas during the summer I know what I would be buying. It drinks almost like a light beer but with flavor that approaches a more full bodied beer.

Mar 26, 2019

beergoot from Colorado

3.5/5  rDev -4.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5

Crystal clear, pale yellow body topped with a thick, fluffy, sticky head. The scent is a little malty, a little grassy. Mild light malt flavor with a more powerful yet balanced hop bitterness. Medium body; crisp with a slight warmth.

A decent pilsner, nothing overly phenomenal or bad, but rather a solid offering for casual drinking.

Dec 23, 2018

VoxRationis from New York

3.83/5  rDev +4.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 3.75

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.

Oct 21, 2018

BJB13 from Maryland

4.08/5  rDev +11.2%
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.

Aug 25, 2018

D1noB from Oklahoma

3.38/5  rDev -7.9%
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.

Jul 29, 2018

casualbeerman from New Jersey

2.26/5  rDev -38.4%
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.

Jun 20, 2018

Profundobaso from New York

4.01/5  rDev +9.3%
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.

Jun 17, 2018

Greenlabel from New Hampshire

4.29/5  rDev +16.9%
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.

Jun 13, 2018

moodenba from New York

4.39/5  rDev +19.6%
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. The bitterness lingers pleasantly after swallowing. This might be my favorite Pilsner style beer in the New York City metro area. Update June of 2019: I have beer regularly drinking this since discovering it. I would rank it with (probably above) the modern Pilsner Urquell.

Jun 12, 2018

Foyle from North Carolina

3.63/5  rDev -1.1%
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.

Apr 25, 2018

VABA from Virginia

3.75/5  rDev +2.2%
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

Mar 31, 2018

52Skiman from New York

3.35/5  rDev -8.7%
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??

Feb 08, 2018

Cyrion from Virginia

3.9/5  rDev +6.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

A bright gold beer, quite translucent, with tiny white bubbles on the head. Aroma is strong with the breads malt and tang of hops. “Pilsner” flavor is prominent, with the malt and hops well-defined and balanced. You can easily tell this is a Pilsner, and not a beer which is labeled as a Pilsner but tastes like a light lager. This beer is much more in the style of Germany’s Pilsners, which is why I’m giving it such high praise. This will be my new stateside widely-available Pilsner. Great stuff.

Jan 14, 2018

Claude-Irishman from New Jersey

3.72/5  rDev +1.4%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 3.75

Looks a 3 on the SRM color index. Smells like mild doughy fruitbread Taste is super crisp and clean,as a Pilsner should. Not overly carbonated.Almost perfect malt balance finish. A really good representation.

Jan 08, 2018

MikeWard from Pennsylvania

3.58/5  rDev -2.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

12oz bottle into a pint glass. Best by March 2018, so I'm going to guess 3 months old?

crystal clear pale golden yellow body. small white head leaving a little lacing.

faintly barnyard/floral aroma

a little bitter on tasting, faintly grainy.

close to medium on the mouth, slightly sour and bitter on the finish.

overall, just a little off to this palate. not clean or crisp.

Dec 30, 2017

MarkCoon from New York

3.74/5  rDev +1.9%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

6 pack of bottles purchased at Wegmans. Poured into pint glass
Appearance- golden, 1/4" head disolves quick but nice lacing of glass
Smell- slightly hoppy but not unless you are really making an effort to inhale. Wish i didn't have to work so hard to smell it.
Taste- slight spicyness and very slight bite. Pleasant balance but nothing noteworthy
Mouthfeel- crisp throughout
Overall- would certainly get it again for an easy drinking beer if i was going to drink throuhgout a game or while eating a big meal of german food

Dec 27, 2017

jimmah120 from Minnesota

4.14/5  rDev +12.8%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.25

12oz bottle with a date

Smell is sweet malt and herbal hops. Taste is crisp and clean: flowers, grass, crackers, bit of salt, slightly peppery finish. Good amount of hops, pleasantly bitter aftertaste.

Very enjoyable pilsner. Could drink this every day

Sep 12, 2017

illpass78 from Maine

4/5  rDev +9%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Pint on draft at Po Boys in Portland, Maine.

Appearance: Clear straw with a diamond white head. Very beery looking.

Aroma: Crisp. Grassy, clean. Crackers; maybe oyster crackers?

Taste: Follows nose. Refreshing, grassy and crisp. Classic pils.

Mouthfeel: Easy and summery. Pilsnerrific.

Overall: Really good pils. Great summer day drinking.

Aug 27, 2017