Vintage Pilsner
Kilter Brewing Co.

Appearance: Pours with two fingers of head that laced decently well and retained admirably. The body is a brassy yellow that seems a bit paler as you put it to the light with a little bit of cloudiness but a decent mount of carbonation. A mix of the color (wishing it was more towards gold), the cloudiness and the carbonation not being quite aggressive enough are the only things stopping it from a better score.

Smell: Pale malt dominates the nose as mild floral, grass and herbal hops accent the experience. Warming seems to bring the malt out a bit more but it achieved decent potency without it.

Taste: Pale bread malt with a hint of rosemary to start and maybe a hint of lemon that eases into a clean kick of grass and I think a bit of dandelion. It doesn't seem like it has a lot going on, but it's just an easy and clean experience.

Mouthfeel: This is where this beer excels, the carbonation gives the beer a pleasant sudsiness throughout the experience. The transitioning is slow paced and easy but has that string of mozzarella kind of joy about it as the note seems well stretched. The only complaint here is occasionally in the aftertaste a bit of an out of place bitter earth hit appears but usually the pale malt and herbal grass is offered in a mostly clean aftertaste.

Drinkability: I would say this is at the absolute edge of what I would call light bodied, before going into medium-light territory. It's intensely easy to drink as it offers some intriguing taste notes but remaining very crisp and mostly clean. It's a bit gassy and maybe a bit on the too simple side but the side of the can say it best. "Take it easy"

Final Thoughts: On my trip to Winnipeg, I felt that this was the pick of the liter in terms of the beers I tried there, and wanted to take a can home to give it a proper review. They nailed this one, and even the baseball like branding on this one is appropriate. This would be the perfect beer to have on tap or to share cans with at the park, in the stands or with friends after a game. Just an all around, well done beer.

I have been enjoying beer for more than 50 years. My preference has been German and Czech beer for about half that time, although a multitude of beers from many different countries have put a smile on my face over the years. I happened upon Kilter Vintage Pilsner on a trip to Winnipeg this week, and it is so good that I joined beeradvocate.com just for this review. What an absolutely GREAT beer. To my taste, I think they nailed it, on a world scale.