Franbo Pils
Highland Park Brewery

 

 

Straight pour from a 16oz can to a flared pilsner glass—AZ Wilderness’ Wilderpils glass. This has a canning date printed in black ink at the heel of the can, if you will, which reads “Canned On 10.26.18”, making this beer nine days old at the time of consumption.

Appearance (4.0): This pours out a good two and a half fingers of cream-colored, fizzly white head that dissipates at a fairly average pace. It caps a crystal clear, straw-yellow body. The head leaves very delicate remnants of wispy lacing on its way down. Through and through, this certainly looks the part—the head could be a little sturdier, certainly, but this screams “pils” through and through.

Smell (4.0): This is remarkably fragrant, no doubt thanks to the dry hopping. While I love Citra, Mosaic, and Amarillo each in turn, they have enough in common in aroma that it’s hard to tell where one ends and another begins. That said, it still smells great: sweet orange and tangerine off the top, with chunky rips of papaya and peach with a slight, fluffy cannabis undertone. To round it all out, it morphs into a deeply floral aroma, which eventually comes to dominate in the end. A bit of wet stone, common crackers, and cracked grain show through that floral note.

Taste (4.0): In the nose it’s all “bigly dry-hopped IPL” in character, and on the palate it’s all “pils! pils! pils!” … which I love. It starts off with a light lemon bitterness with very faint, sweet pineapple undertones, but transforms quickly into a stiff, floral bitterness with extraordinarily crisp mineral tones, erring just slightly on the side of chalkiness. It actually works really well. It remains strongly floral and minerally through to the finish, where that very slight chalky feel takes hold and cleans everything up in the finish. It leaves a long-lingering, grassy and floral bitterness that fades away but hangs on waaaay in the background. No sign of booze. Malt is clean, crisp, and dry, offering just a hint of the starchiness associated with fresh-cracked grains, taking the form of common crackers and floury baking soda biscuit crust. A soft, citrusy note comes out just a smidge toward the end, adding some nice depth.

Mouthfeel (4.5): The feel is surprisingly good, given my feeling that the lack of can conditioning (somewhat) negatively affects Highland Park’s beers. The carbonation is close to medium-grain but fairly soft, offering a nicely swishy, smooth feel as it foams up and washes about your palate. The body is decently on the light- side of medium-weight, and the feel is crisp and clean, thanks to the aforementioned subtle chalkiness and bright, floral bitterness. No sign of booze. This is crushable as hell, and befits the style.

Overall (4.0): I think Highland Park does a great job with its pilsners. I’m pretty sure I’ve had Timbo Pils on tap and liked it, and I LOVED Relaxing Weekend. I had a can of this maybe two days after it was packaged and remember it being much fruitier and juicy hop-forward, but the way I’ve experienced it tonight is lovely in so many, somewhat different ways. Or rather, what I like about it tonight is a little different from what I liked about it the first time. Considering that it was crushable and full of character both times, I think that’s a huge compliment: when a beer is beautiful to drink even when it transforms or is experienced in different lights, it speaks to the quality of the underlying structure and spirit of the beer, which in this case is just lovely. Recommended for pils fans or anyone looking for a craft crusher.