Old 68 Imperial Pilsner
Brewsters Brewing Company & Restaurant - Eleventh Avenue

This fairly rare seasonal offering is a nice burnished russet gold color with a moderate amount of white foam. Looks good in a goblet. Aroma is subdued (perhaps because the beer is served too cold) but one gets some frangrant and spicy Saaz-type hops that show up strong on the palate. A very smooth refined bitterness with herbal grassy notes (tarragon) and aromatic spice well-balanced by grainy light malts with some caramel sweetness. Almost a bread and butter effect. Some green grape fruitiness in both aroma and taste as the beer warms up. Smooth finish with almost no astringency and all in all a very integrated offering devoid of booziness or other obvious flaws. Stylistically somewhere between Bohemian and German to my tastes, but nicely fits the "imperial Pils" category.

A pint of the current seasonal, a nod to the still active, and productive, Jaromir Jagr, in reference to his jersey number, and associated sociopolitical heritage.

This beer appears a clear, frosted medium golden hue, with one finger of tight creamy off-white head, which seeps away evenly and apace, leaving partial island profile lace around the glass.

It smells of yeasty pale, grainy malt, some floral orchard fruitiness, and soft sweaty grass. The taste is crisp, white crackery malt, a level metallic warming, and somewhat lemony, grassy, earthy hops, which come out of their shell more as things warm.

The bubbles are moderately zesty, and a tad airy, the body on the lean side of medium weight, and haltingly smooth, some delinquent bubbles and simmering alcohol bearing culpability. It finishes fairly malty, of the grainy bread variety, the booze and Saaz-esque hops mewling at the gates.

A decent enough strong pils, though not as Bohemian in nature as the marketing blurb so proclaims. Neither the heat (yea), nor the hops (nay) push the envelope, aiding further in the otherwise agreeable quaffability of this more interesting than usual seasonal.