Kneebone Pils
Cellar West Artisan Ales

Serving: Can
Canned: Illegible
Consumed: Jan-4-2023

Absolutely brilliant, crystal clear brass with a big, billowing bone white head. Great retention and lacing. Aromatic foam insulation. Doesn't get any better.

Nose is crackery malt and herbal-minty green hop freshness on the nose. Grass, green tea, lime rind, hay.

Taste-wise the beer features these same characteristics but inverted. That is, tea-like grassy hop bite up front with aromatic bread crust at the end of each sip.

It is a dry, clean, crisp, well-carbonated beer that encourages more consumption with every sip.

Very nice example of the style and doesn't fall prey to wanting to make it with a pale ale level of hops. Everything enhances everything else and all the aroma and flavor are well-melded in a tasty lager package.

5...4.25...4...4.5...4.5

No canning date

Pours a lightly foggy yet predominantly clear pale golden straw body topped with multiple fingers of dense, fluffy, off-white foam; good head retention fades to a creamy half-finger of cap, an expansive, frothy collar, and a thorough layering of chunky, webby lacing spread around the walls of the glass.

Aroma opens with an overarching bog of wet grain and a bit of barnyard yeast, cleverly concealing appropriately softened tones of orange peel and apricot zest; hints of unbuttered popcorn lead into lemon spritz and plush minerality over the middle, and closing with a kiss of honeysuckle and fresh grass.

Tastes brings out a soft hay and grainy subtlety to open, with clean yeast easing toward a gritty minerality building over the mid-palate; a touch of lemon into back end lends to an equally soft tone of grass on the finish.

Mouthfeel shows a light body elevated with a near-perfectly attenuated, moderate-high carbonation, producing an effortless, airy grit diffusing over the mid-palate as a zesty twang of distant hoppy tartness on the back end rounds to a quenching, almost powder-dry finish.

Skillfully executed and excessively drinkable, this pils perhaps paradoxically shows weighty yet elegant malts supplemented with a wispy hop character implemented from the backdrop for an understated cohesion; well-paced and distinct, with just enough of a deeper allure.

Pours light golden yellow color, great carbonation, aroma is light and crackery, tastes crisp with earthy citrus, body is light and finish is clean. Overall, this is an excellent pilsner and I'd put it up as one of the best I've had.