Pinnation Pils
Highland Park Brewery

Appearance: Arrives with an impressive ghost white head capping the clear golden liquid; sheets of lacing linger

Smell: Bready malt with an interesting sage tone that mingles with a grassy element

Taste: Bready, up front, with the white sage emerging powerfully; grassy and moderately bitter, through the middle, with a crisp finish

Mouthfeel: Light bodied with crisp carbonation

Overall: The first beer I sampled at the State of Origin festival and this could well be my favorite; bring on the Italian pilsner style

16oz pour to a tall pilsner glass, fresh on tap at the brewery in Chinatown. Looking back through social media, it looks like this beer was first put on tap about 16 days ago, or just over two weeks. Still pretty fresh, and very, very clean.

Appearance (5.0): This pours out a bone white head measuring about two fingers think. The foam is fluffy and rocky, dissipating into gorgeous lacing that looks more like automatic car wash foam arcing all over the edges of the glass. Great retention. Crystal clear, 24ct gold body. Appearance-wise, it very much feels like a fresh, Old World lager through and through.

Smell (4.25): Sage, but not as strong as white sage. I’m not sure I’ve consumed California sage in any other product, but generally speaking I’m always a fan of sage. It’s somewhere between floral and grassy with soft earthy tones, and just gorgeous. Adding some depth, the grainy, dry malt body comes through next, showing cracked barley corn with laced with a dusty, spicy Noble hop backbone. Bucolic, nuanced, and crushable at the same time.

Taste (4.25): On the palate, the sage is much more pronounced, with spicy and earthy tones but somehow very soft and fluffy. Classic Italian Pils style base: almost bracingly herbal hop bite, mixed with a distinctly grainy and delightfully dusty malt/grain component, and dry rather than mineral-forward, as you might expect with some other lagers that trend toward expressing their fermentation style. Citrusy notes sprinkled in as well, calling to mind coriander and bergamot. A little white pepper, and then that sage swings back around. There's a soft, juicy, lightly fruity body woven into the grain bill that I really dig; it adds some depth to the dry, grainy malt, herbal, floral, and citrusy hops, and the earthy, floral sage.

Mouthfeel (4.75): Unbelievably fluffy. Carb is active and foamy, tingly but not prickly, infusing itself into the body rather than laying down a base. The body is on the light- side of medium-weight, but its dryness allows it to remain fluffy and light given the carb's dominance here. Not complaining at all, it's an incredibly quenching drink.

Overall (4.5): This beer is, to me, outstanding. It pairs well with fish, veggies, crunchies—I drank this with an albacore/tomatillo/avocado ceviche and it was fucking rad. It’s a very well-crafted lager that sits within style guidelines, even this one substyle (Italian Pils), while exploring the edges a bit with the addition of California sage. Highly recommended, if you've been enjoying the rash of delightful euro pilsners coming out of west coast breweries recently. I really hope they make this seasonally, and maybe even put it in cans!