Main Street Pilsner
Bastone Brewery

 

 

 

 

A thin but still crisp pale gold pilsner with a slight diactyl flavor and background notes of metallic, soap, and earthy hops

Short Review. This was just ok, It had a unique aroma for the style, I think it had some Belgian yeast in it and the aroma and taste reminded me of Stella Artois. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't really for me.

 

This beer was served on tap at Bastone in Royal Oak, Michigan. It arrived in a generic pint glass, showing a pale straw coloring, with ruddy hues of bronze when scrutinized under light. No real head was noted, but a creamy film lay across the top of the liquid, with vertical stripes of lacing etched down the glass. A chill haze was present, but this faded quickly. Carbonation appeared to be moderate. The nose gave rice and white corn adjuncts, heavy pilsner maltiness, yeasty metallics, ice, mineral, lightly chalked wheatiness, dog food grit, wet straw, wood lacquer, mold, and white grape skins. The taste to follow contained white wine vinegar, olive oil and green olive pit, that big pilsner malt dryness, toasted white bread, urinal cake chemical bite (in a good way, if imaginable), harsh medicinal phenols, moldy cheddar, and damp cutting board wood. The body was light to medium, with nice cream and froth to the lip. This swooped into a huge chalky dryness felt to predominantly prickle the hard palate. The abv was appropriate, and drinkability remained modest.

Overall, we felt this beer to be a great representation of the style. The malt bill presented was fantastic, in all of their dry powderiness and healthy metallic sheen. We feel that this is a style that many American producers don’t attempt, for fear of creating a horrifying version of our typical American adjunct lagers, which obviously wouldn’t appeal to many craft beer enthusiasts trying to get away from exactly that. Again, they hit the nail right on the head here, delivering something that is authentic, subtle, and surprisingly complicated. This is only our third visit to this establishment, after living only one mile away from it for more than a year now. Really, that says more about the location than each beer individually, but despite their boasting of signature IPAs, dubbels, and tripels, this is the beer that we’re left thinking about.