Your Favorite Pilsners

Love Prima Pils By Victory, Sunshine Pils by Troegs, and Sly Fox....damn, I must be from the Southeast PA area. Need to try some of the West Coast Pils.

 

The. Crisp.

 

This is always the right answer. Live oak pils is good too.

 

Since its possible to say "SAAZ" in 20 foot high letters without using those same letters to beat peoples tastebuds back about their head and shoulders for them with the letters, I'd agree that Pilsners are all about the hops, just in a very different flavor profile than IPAs. I'd also suggest that the range of German brewed Pils beers and US brewed Pils beers overlap a lot more in terms of balance than many people give them credit for and that over the last 20-30 years the hop-range or bitterness level of German Pils has drifted a ways downwards from where it once was as tastes have changed. But hop flavors are so much more than the bitterness.

 

Paulaner and Urquell are hard to beat for the real thing. I'll drink the shit out of those in the summer. Live Oak Pils (Kurmaraja beat me to this one) is exceptionally tasty for a Merican' Pils. Little Yella and Victory Pils too.

 

My favorite pilsner is Victory Braumeister Pils, but you can only get it at the brewery. I really wish they bottled it.

 

If you are referring to a beer like Prima Pils, I have been drinking pilsners in Germany and the U.S. for nearly 30 years now, and nothing I (or apparently Jim Busch from Victory as well) ever tasted over there is nearly as hoppy. Why you and some others would seem to continue to insist otherwise is beyond me.

 

They distribute it in kegs, too. I had some down here in SC a couple of years back.

 

I'm actually neither thinking about nor referring to Prima Pils, which many agree is an outlier.

Edit: And just FYI, you are not the only person in the world who had the opportunity to drink German beers in Germany 30 years ago.

 

OK. My apologies then.

 

Short's Spruce Pilsner

 

I liked The Crisp a lot.

 

I have really enjoyed the Moat's German Pilsner.

 

Pivo Pils!

 

Hop Ticket Dry Hopped Pils

 

Foothills Brewing Torch Pilsner. Nice, refreshing beer. It is made in Winston Salem, NC

 

I still find Dortmunders to be on the maltier side (almost like an imperial Helles to me, but I'd NEVER call it that).

After sending my post, I realize I'm looking at this from the point of view of an American. I've slammed myself over the head with hops so much the last decade it's hard for me to consider a pilsner a "hop forward" beer.

I actually found Weihenstephan's on draft recently to be on the hoppier side compared to the German imports I've sampled. This was more present as the beer warmed, and in the finish.

As far as Czech pilsners go, I've always found the IBUs (and accompanying bitterness) well hidden in this style, offering a softer hop profile than the German versions. Despite the fact the label always indicates otherwise. But as @drtth has previously mentioned, there's more to hops than IBUs and bitterness. It actually reminds me a lot of the pilsners I drank in 2011 in Munich.

 

This was the basic point I was trying to make above.

And this, the bigger point. Although I understand the perspective of a Pilsner being "hop forward," it's far from what most Amis consider a hoppy beer -- and probably why I like the Pilsner as my hoppy go-to.

 

Is that what I see them drinking on "Corner Gas"?!

 

A local brewery does a great Czech style pilsner, one of the best I've ever had:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29279/123034/

Brewery only right now...