Brewhouse Rarities: Sunflower Pilsner
Flying Dog Brewery

 

Pretty good pilsner not very skunked some slight bitterness and a flavor almost similar to sunflower seeds. Not sure if I would get it again but it was worth a try!

 

 

Light floral aroma, with notes of sunflowers. Pours a clear golden with a thin white head. Light body, with a touch of malt sweetness fading into a crisp floral finish. An interesting twist on a pilsner for a refreshing summer beer.

Well, Dog, our interlude together has been a pleasant & interesting one, but following this review, we must part company for the interim. I have long enjoyed your beers, especially since visiting your DEN LoDo facility in 2001 & I love that you are relatively nearby now. I will redouble my efforts to keep an eye out for new releases from you. Adieu!

From the bottle: "Zach and Carl are high school friends reunited by love (of craft beer) and occupation (our sales team). Naturally, they teamed up for our annual Brewhouse Rarities retreat, where anyone can pitch a beer concept to our brewmaster. Their pitch focused on the complex simplicity of a clean and classic beer style enhanced with sunflower petals. The pitch, and their story, clearly struck a chord."

I struck a chord with the Pop! of the cap before I began my now-standard gentle pour into the awaiting glass. I gave it a vigorous in-glass swirl to raise two-plus fingers of foamy, fizzy, soapy, bone-white head with extremely limited retention. Bye! The color was a perfect Yellow-Gold (SRM = 4 - 5) with NE-quality clarity, like a burst of sunshine in my glass on a cold, windy, overcast day. Perfect! The nose had a flowery, perfume-y quality to go with its earthy maltiness & my default was dandelions. I remember my first girlfriend, in Nursery School (!), and I picking pretty dandelions for our mothers during recess. Later in life, my maternal uncle made dandelion wine. This beer was evocative of all of that. I could sit & look at this endlessly as I reminisce on the sunflowers in my late-Pops' garden & the ones on the corner up from my ex-Old Lady's place. Mouthfeel was kind of thin, not exactly watery, but lacking real presence. The taste was different, especially from a Pilsner aspect. It had the earthy maltiness and the grassy hoppiness, but with a flowery, perfume-y aspect as well. It was very easy-drinking & quite refreshing, but in terms of its style, it was not quite hitting the mark. I would probably stick to Pilsner Urquell from a CAN if given the choice/option. YMMV.

Flying Dog Brewery "Brewhouse Rarities Sunflower Pilsner"
12 fl. oz. brown glass bottle, "...ENJOY BY: 12:23:17" and sampled on 09:11:17
$2 @ Weis, Conshohocken, PA

Notes via stream of consciousness: Sunflower petals, interesting. I'd never have thought of that, I had no idea sunflower petals had any use. Anyway, it's a clear yellow in color beneath a short head of bright white that seems to be dropping before my eyes. The aroma is that of a pilsner with clear pilsner malt and a hint of lemon amongst floral, spicy, grassy, and herbal hops. It's clean and bright and welcoming. The flavor follows with more of a floral character that might be from the sunflower petals, but who knows? It's also less grassy, and just delicately spicy, and then lightly herbal in the finish. Ahh, there's a bit of an earthiness in the aftertaste, and perhaps that's from the sunflower petals. I'm more inclined to believe that over the floral notes, but again, who knows, maybe the petals haven't had any effect whatsoever. It's nicely balanced by a stiff bitterness that helps to dry it in the finish along with the spicy and herbal hops, and I think you'd be hard pressed to find anything to complain about. It's light-medium to medium-light in body and gently crisp. The only limitation I see is that the head retention and lacing weren't better, although it has left some nice lacing even after the head had faded. Definitely a decent pilsner. Really well done.

Solid pilsner. Clear, bright, and crisp. Good amount of malt. The sunflower gives a grassy aftertaste to the whole thing. I don't really think it adds all that much.

A: The beer is crystal clear light yellow in color and has a light amount of visible carbonation. It poured with a quarter finger high bright white head that quickly faded away, leaving a thin film of bubbles covering the surface and a narrow collar around the edge of the glass.
S: Light aromas of bready malts are present in the nose along with notes of floral hops. As the beer warms up, the malts become a little stronger.
T: The taste has a moderate amount of bitterness with flavors of bready malts and floral hops.
M: It feels light- to medium-bodied and clean on the palate with a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This pilsner has a good balance between the malts and hops and isn't really that heavy on the palate. It goes down easily and makes for a good summer beer.

Serving type: bottle

Enjoy by 12/23/17. 12oz bottle poured into a pint glass. Pours a pale golden with great clarity and transparency and has bubbles racing upwards; small white head that falls leaving nice retention and solid lacing. The aromas are nice with some floral notes and pilsener malts. Mild hints of sweet honey. The flavors follow the nose perfectly. Solid bitterness. It's very clean, crisp, sharp and refreshing. Slightly earthy. Subtle hints of lemon, grapefruit and citrus. Finishes dry. Alcohol goes unnoticed. Mouthfeel is great. It's on the fuller side of light-bodied with sharp active carbonation. It's slightly fluffy and very crisp, smooth and easy to drink.

This is a great pilsener. The craftsmanship is impressive and it's very fun to drink. Perfect for the warm weather. Well done and definitely recommended.

 

Clear gold, with white head.
Aroma is typical pils : bready malt, a touch of bread dough (yeast), some floral and wet grass aromas, from the hops. Sunflower petals? Nope, at least nothing specifically smelling of sunflower.
(Side note : Long ago, I actually brewed a summer ale with sunflowers. It is POSSIBLE to end up smelling & tasting of sunflower.[Not that it was better than this. It wasn't : P] )

Flavor follows nose, plus a faint sweet apple flavor(from the sunflower), that blunts the hop bitterness.

Feel is medium light, smooth, with very fine carbonation.

Overall, a good one, that I would like to have again. I wish the sunflower was more noticeable, and there was more/sharper hop bite , but if I didn't know that it was supposed to be there, I probably wouldn't notice that.

 

 

 

 

Sunflower pedals or not, this is a solid easy drinking pilsner that is a touch heavier than norm on the bittering hops. Respectable attempt at a pilsner with a twist (albeit I don't taste sunflower pedals).