The Whistle
Pivotal Brewing Company

Beautiful pour of crystal clear golden liquid with the fluffy white head that falls kinda in stages to a soapy cap and sturdy ring, quite substantial lacing. Microbubbles rise through the liquid, feeding that cap.

The smell seems right on target. Slightly sweet malt and Noble hops, faintly lemon and a tad bit of spiciness. The hops are wonderfully herbal, maybe a bit of straw or grassiness. The lemon peeks through, and the herbal note puts me in mind of Early Grey tea a bit. Bergamot notes wouldn't be unheard of in Noble hops, but it is interesting.

The taste is very clean with an excellent balance. It opens slightly sweet and malty, but the lemon and spiciness are not far behind. There's a nice level of bitterness that helps counteract everything, but it is outlingered by the mild spicy peppery notes. A good job was done with the hops here. Not overbearing but a definite impact - there's a lot of herb garden flavors going on and a slightly building black pepper note. Very, very mild mineral tang in the aftertaste.

Feel tends towards the border of light and medium. Slightly drying, suitably bitter, crisp enough and clean.

Not to delve into the style argument, in my opinion the so-called Italian pilsner tend to be a little sweeter and the hops are somewhat more fragrant, more herbal than spicy. if I get the gist of it, this style is pretty much a dry hopped German pilsner so that makes sense to me.

Whatever... This is an excellent beer from a new to me brewery where I can't find much intel and i never heard of before today. Really a solid, enjoyable brew