Jever - The German Pilsener

I also found a sealed cardboard case a few days ago based on @jesskidden's earlier comments. The case was dated from late April (~3 months old) and it's not skunked. Jever is delish! It's definitely got a nice prominent hop bite, but it's restrained just enough to balance with the dry malts. Jever might be my new favorite pilsner. I'm going through this case really quickly!

I know I'm in the minority here but I find many high-rated American pilsners are a little too heavy on the hops (Prima, Pivo, Pikeland, Trauger, Sunshine, etc.). These pilsners can be really good with a meal, but for regular drinking/relaxing they fatigue my palate and want to move on something else, which I think is opposite of what a good pilsner should be. A great pilsner to me is one that balances on the precipice of too much flavor/palate fatigue, but when I finish I still want open another one, like a session beer. Where that balancing point is may be different for different people, but Jever is doing that for me now.

 

Never see it in Colorado but I believe it's in DC area, does anybody know if it's maybe occasionally available at the Fair Lakes Whole Foods, or maybe Norm's in Vienna?

Will be in Warrenton in September, need to remind myself to pick this up on the way, or not too much of a detour, from the airport--if it is distributed in NOVA.

 

Glad to hear that you were able to find some fresh Jever. I am a BIG fan of Jever when I luck out and find it fresh. My last purchase was quite some time ago; a fresh 6-pack at Total Wine & More (Claymont, DE). What I appreciate most about Jever is it great bracingly dry finish.

Unlike you I find a beer like Troegs Sunshine Pils to be sublimely balanced and at 4.5% ABV very sessionable. Sunshine Pils is my beer of choice at Citizens Bank Park when watching a Phillies game. I have to exercise great restraint since that beer goes down so smoothy for me I need to 'manage' my intake.

My fantasy would be able to travel back in time and drink the 'back in the day' version of Jever that @Zimbo discusses in BA threads.

Cheers!

Cheers!

 

Agreed. That dry finish with the lingering hop notes makes me want to open another.

I double-checked Sunshine Pils stats to make sure I was remembering it correctly... it's 45 IBUs, which seems appropriate for the bitterness I remember from it. I get burned out on that much bitterness in a pils. Different strokes for different folks.

I might need to give Neshaminy's Trauger pils another try though as it's stats look similar to Jever, albeit slightly less IBUs, but I should be able to get it fresher. Trauger even uses the same hop type (Tettnanger).

From Neshaminy's Trauger Pils description (underlines by me):
Our Pilsner is assertively hopped with Hallertau and Tettnanger noble hops and has a cracker-like malt backbone that finishes crisp and dry coming in at 4.8% ABV...

OG – 1.050
FG – 1.014
IBU – 26.8
SRM – 1.6

Base Malt – German Pilsen

 

I am a BIG fan of Trauger Pils. I order every time I see it on draft (which has occurred many times in the last 6 months).

I personally refuse to buy the cans of Trauger Pils since there is no dates on the can. My beer money goes to bottles/cans of Sunshine Pils, Prima Pils, Pikeland Pils, Stoudt's Pils, Sixpoint Crisp, etc, instead. I have bought two 12-packs of Sunshine Pils in cans so far this summer and I have a 'feeling' that one more 12-pack will be bought.

This year's Straub Pilsner (part of the Straub Summer variety pack) was very, very good!

Cheers!

 

I do like Sixpoint's The Crisp.

The last two times I went beer shopping I literally picked up the Straub variety pack and then put it back on the shelf... but in the last week I've read some good things (mostly from you in other threads), so I'm going to get it on my next beer run.

 

That seems to be changing for the NC beers (as @CassinoNorth pointed out to me, and from whom I borrowed this pic ).

I've been checking and while some stickers are being rubbed off (accidentally? maybe from having other flats of cans on top of them during shipping) I have recently seen a number of sixpacks with them intact - and thus my first purchases of some their beers.

 

Yup, all of the beers in that variety pack are high quality beers. IMHO, the Straub Hefeweizen is OUTSTANDING!

The Straub Hefeweizen is available as a 'stand-alone' beer (6-packs and cases).

Cheers!

 

I think Jack and I agree that this is their best variety pack yet, but don't agree on which ones are our faves. (That probably says something, in and of itself ). Anyway, to me the #1 is the Vienna, with the Kolsch coming in a close second. Definitely give it a try yourself, I'm sure you will enjoy them all.

 

Sorry Ran, but I've never had a pilsner that finishes at 1.014 be "crisp & dry".

 

How about I say this: It's all good!

Cheers to Straub!!

 

Douglas,

That is a fair observation. I have drank a lot of Neshaminy Creek Trauger Pils and the description of "crisp and dry" are not the first words that come to mind. I do very much enjoy the cracker-like malt backbone and their use of hops does provide a nice balance to this beer. It is still joy to drink despite the 'higher' final gravity.

Lots of different PA brewed German style Pilsners are brewed and they all bring something 'to the party' IMO.

Cheers!

 

Sure @JackHorzempa but then as an astute beer drinker, one is missing the nuances. A "dry" beer vs. a hoppy or bitter beer is quite a difference. I think frequently about the discussion of the "sweet" doppelbock vs a west coast crystal IPA, the former which appears drier but in end effect is not. It's just differently palatable.

 

I'm not a homebrewer so OG and FG never meant anything to me, but maybe it's time I learn...

 

Randy,

The Final Gravity value is an indication of the residual sugars in the beer. A beer with a lower final gravity will be perceived as having a dry finish. A beer with a higher final gravity will be perceived as having a more rounded finish or even a sweet finish if the value is very high.

Below are some statistics for other PIlsners:

Jever:

· OG = 1.045

· FG = 1.007

Pilsner Urquell

· OG = 1.047

· FG = 1.013

As can be discerned from the values above, Jever has a low(er) Final Gravity value so it should be expected that it has a dry finish which is does.

Pilsner Urquell has a high(er) Final Gravity value so it should be expected to have a rounder finish which it does.

The Final Gravity value of Trauger Pils is more aligned with Pilsner Urquell.

Cheers!

Jack

 

There has been some discussion about the bitterness level of Jever in this thread.

@drtth, @jesskidden @hopfenunmaltz @Zimbo @AlcahueteJ

According to a 2010 presentation located on the MBAA website, Jever had 40 IBUs (page 22 of the presentation).

How many IBUs it has in 2015 I have no idea.

Cheers!

http://www.mbaa.com/districts/Northwest/Events/Documents/2010_05_14TheBrewingPilsnerBeers.pdf

 

Thanks for that link. Several interesting questions answered there.

 

PU=31.6? Bitburger=23.1? Those are lower than usual values seen for those beers.

 

Jeff, the value of 31.6 IBUs for Pilsner Urquell is indeed lower that other published values for this beer. I was not too shocked to see this 'updated' value since a brewing scientist I know informed me that he conducted IBU measurements on Pilsner Urquell and it was lower than 40 IBUs (the common value published for PU). My guess is that Pilsner Urquell has lowered the bitterness level of the beer over the years. I would be curious to see published IBU values for Pilsner Urquell for 1970, 1980 and 1990. I don't know if this data exists.

As to the value of 23.1 for Bitburger, the best that I can say is that this value is consistent with the Bitburger beers I have had in the last 5+ years. Maybe just like everybody else, Bitburger has gone through the decreasing of hopping rates over the past few decades.

Cheers!

 

Those data in the MBAA presentation make me wonder about the accuracy

The trend is downwards.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/stor...84&s=6244c25707370aa2130055b41893b3d7814f1fe7