Pleasant Pils
Highland Park Brewery

 

Clear golden-yellow brew with sticky foam in the Gamecraft Pilsner glass. Aroma of alfalfa and citrus in the nose. Light and sudsy on the tongue with plenty of carbonation. Just slightly sweet with a distinct malty start. Hints of lime and melon. Resiny hop flavor and starts with moderate bitter aftertaste but gets more bitter after a few sips. Here's yet another hoppy Lager for summer. From the 16 oz can purchased at O'Shea Brewing. Dated 04/22/25.

 

Poured from a can at fridge temp. Pours a semi-transparent yellow with a relatively thin layer of white head. The nose is lemon, honey, wheat, grass, bread, orange, and a bit of vanilla. Really smooth.

The taste is excellent. Citrus peel, pine, apple, honey, orange, grass, leather, and a nice earthy note.

The mouthfeel is light and super dry. Overall, a nice and smooth Italian style pilsner.

 

Type: 16-oz. can
Reviewed as: Italian Pilsner
Glass: Burgeon .5L pilsner glass
Price: $18.99 for a mixed 4-pack
From: Blind Lady Ale House in Normal Heights (San Diego), Calif.
Purchased: Feb. 18, 2021
Consumed: Feb. 19, 2021
Misc.: Canned on Feb. 12, 2021

Bought a Highland Park mixed 4-pack when I saw it available at Blind Lady Ale House. I love that BLAH is doing these lately as I’m on their website every day. Only description I could find was that it was an Italian-style pilsner. If it’s anything like their other pilsners, this would be great.

Poured a pale, yellow clear color with 4-to-5 fingers of rocky white head. Lots of fast-moving bubbles coming up from the bottom and sides of the glass. World-class foamy lacing. Perfect retention. (Sight - 4.75)

Smelled sourdough bread, grass, white cracker, black pepper, Noble hops, floral, honey, bready malt and hay. About the same from the can. (Smell - 4.00)

Tasted a little better than the nose. Got sourdough bread, grass, hay, Noble hops, black pepper, floral, lemon zest, grapefruit, bready malt, honey, pear and hints of banana. (Taste - 4.25)

Medium body. Oily texture. Lively carbonation. Long, dry, spicy finish. (Feel - 4.25)

Damn. Really liked this. About as good as I hoped. (Overall - 4.25)

4.22 | 94 | A-

 

 

Can from lupulo.

I’m a bit surprised at the low rating. That being said, I simply bought this beer because people hold Highland Park in high esteem out here, and personally, I’ll pretty much buy any Pilsner or Lager regardless because I am a fan of them as they are not a “hot” style. Moving along, is Pleasant Pils a “hot one?” Let’s dig in...

Man, like dipping your feet into the Pacific on a hot Laguna Beach day, I feel this one quite well. There are no “off” flavors (like your cousin Timmy), and it pretty much just shows up to the party ready to bring it like Dirk the captain of the football team.

I’ll drink to that!

 

Pours a clear pale yellow with a huge puffy head that leaves a thick soapy lacing.
Nose has lightly stale cracker base with hints of lemonbalm and other herbal or grassy notes. Certainly has a summery vibe
Taste leads with the herbal/grassy/lemon balm notes front and center. Smoothed out quickly by a biscuity, ever so slightly buttery smoothness. The interplay between these grassy and biscuity notes works pretty well.
Mouthfeel is nice, lightly buttery but still decently crisp.
Overall this is a nice lager, the hop usage is appropriate and plays well with the malts. Clean flavors, a little close to the edge on the presence of diacetyl but not too over the top. Pleasant is a fair name.

 

 

Pours a bright straw yellow. Huge fluffy chalk white head. Good retention.
Upfront a grassy wave of noble hops, followed by a more subtle bready malt character.
Taste follows. Grassy noble hops followed by a distinct and quite unique grainy, corn/bready character.
Not sure what an ‘Italian Pilsner’ is or how it differs from German/Czech. Google seems to think it is like a German but dry hopped? Anyway. Good beer!

Straight pour from a 16oz can to a stemless wine glass (HPB’s Bottle Friends cat glass). This was canned on April 5, 2019 according to a canning date printed in black ink on the underside of the can (“Canned on 04.05.19”), making this can 12 days old at the time of consumption.

Appearance (3.75): This pours out two full fingers of fizzy, fuzzy white foam capping a crystal clear, pale golden body with beautiful yellow undertones. The head dies down at a moderate pace, more or less matching the style, leaving only sparse, delicate lacing in the form of a few arcs here and there tied to a dissipating, thin film on the surface.

Smell (4.25): A beautiful bouquet of floral aromas evoking honeysuckle, fresh-cut grass, and sweet pea flower mingles with an interesting, grainy, slightly sweet malt backbone. It smells like mixed grain porridge lightly sweetened with tupelo or avocado honey, and just the lightest touch of dark brown sugar. This is still a 50/50 blend of floral, grassy hop aromas and gentle, pale malt character, though. I really dig it.

Taste (4.25): On the palate, the hops are gentle and grassy and floral and balanced, offering a soft bitterness tied to an equally understated but thoughtful flavor. Faintly sweet floral tones mix with sweetgrass, watered down lemonade, and a distant suggestion of crushed grapefruit seeds. This is complemented beautifully by a grain/malt backbone that more or less mirrors what was described in the nose: mixed grains, stewed but not caramelized—porridge that’s been left to cool, sweetened with a light, floral honey note that draws it back into the hops. A bright but gentle citrusy bitterness comes back around on the back end, cleaning the house of any remnants of malt, leaving just soft grassy, floral, and light honey tones. It’s an interesting trick. I will say, if you drink this ice cold, the bitterness is much more pronounced—but I’d recommend it after it’s been sitting out of the fridge for a few minutes (though heaven forfend, not too long).

Mouthfeel (4.75): For all of the gentility of flavor and aroma, the feel deviates slightly in offering a moderately firm, clean feel characterized by active, lightly tingly carbonation that lays down a broad, soft blanket for the body to sit on, followed by a juicy, swishy body that feels a bit shy of medium-weight but with a deceptive viscosity. That said, any slickness is deftly handled by a blend of hops and tingly bubbles that foam up, sweep away any sweetness or slickness, and wash it all away with a taut, clean feel. Crushable.

Overall (4.0): Italian pilsners are relatively new to me. I’ve had two or three American craft Italian pilsners, plus Birra Moretti and a handful of others in Europe god, what, over a decade ago now. (Yeesh, I feel old.) What I like about it is that these craft brewers are making them with a handful of consistent stylistic quirks: a graininess that feels distinct to this substyle, floral and grassy hops, usually a pretty firm feel, and definite crushability. Sometimes they’re too dry to throw more than a couple back in one sitting. This, however, I think is an exception: it’s definitely an Italian pilsner, but it’s more drinkable in a way, and focuses on elements of the flavor and aroma that can get overlooked in the search for a super dry crusher (which can come off as mildly astringent, in my experience). This is more balanced and a little nuanced, but still infinitely quaffable. Highly recommended for the pilsner lover, or for anyone looking for craft-made “Dad Fuel.”

Sips flat with a unexpected citrusy carbonation that belies it’s appearence.A nice full rounded juicy mouth feel ends with a wee bit of cereal in its lightest form.

On tap at Modern Times PDX.

Straw yellow with a dense white head with good retention and lacing this looks solid. The nose is sharp and hoppy with a noticeable grainy character. Honey, straw, mint, lemon, earth. The palate opens moderately bitter with a blend of earth and lemon with a nice grainy pils malt base. The contrast between the soft water and the sharp mineral bitterness is nice. Light in body and softly carbonated, this beer finishes dry and mildly bitter. No Tipopils or Terrifico, but this is good.