Pilsners!

Since skunkiness is a fault from a beer being light struck, not a byproduct of any fresh hopping in a recipe, I have to question what this reviewer really knows about the style(s).

http://beeradvocate.com/articles/527

 

"Is that by any chance the FOAM pilsner"

Don't know what they were calling it, know that it was the one that won the WBC gold. They make a lot of different beers in their pilot brewery, and many are on tap at the Taproom in Chico.

 

Glad you pointed this out. I still maintain Prima is overhopped for a pilsner. Again, Victory's Braumeister pilsner series is an excellent example of the style and I much prefer it to the far better known and more widely distributed Prima. I also prefer Stoudt's Pils over Prima. As for wine critic Eric Asimov saying Prima is the "best in the world" - that just exposes his lack of familiarity with German and Czech pilsners, especially the majority that aren't exported over here. Stick to your wines, Eric.

 

I don't drink a ton of this kinda style, really once in a blue moon, but Dortmunder Gold is very good, and hopped up or not Prima is also good stuff.

 

Get outta my head! I completely agree, I've had the Braumeister a few times on draft, it's sublime. Had a Stoudt's on draft as well last month, it's incredibly drinkable, which should be a main characteristic of a pilsner. This is where Prima falls short. I feel the hop bitterness becomes overbearing as more than a few. Don't get me wrong, great beer, just not exactly what I'm looking for in a pilsner.

 

Don't even get me started on the whisk(e)y naming debate that Eric started in the Times...

I think I still prefer Prima to the Braumeister versions that I've had, but they are all quite enjoyable, would definitly want to try the other hop varieties that have been made (if they still exist).

 

I am surprised that only one other person said Mamas Little Yella... I vote for that and Victory Prima

 

You need to get your hands on Sierra Nevada Pilsner. Good enough to beat the Germans at the World Beer Cup a couple years ago. There are a lot of mediocre American pilasters, but probably no more than mediocre German pilasters. The difference is that the German ones are generally well-brewed, but just uniformly bland, while the American ones may have some stylistic flaws but try to be unique and have more character.

 

Which SA pilsener? And the second part of your statement is completely false in regards to both german and american brews. Most German pilseners are not uniformly bland.

 

I don't believe that most US micros that take on the brewing of a Pilsner style beer are looking to be "unique." (other than Three Floyds, maybe) Those with a unique side get that from being, well -- off.

That said (and as I concurred in another thread) SN's Summertime is a damn fine rendition of the style by a US brewery.

 

It's just called "pilsner" form what I've seen and has been randomly on tap for a couple years now. I didn't mean to say that most German pils are bland, I was specifically referring to the mediocre ones and why they aren't that great, versus missing the style mark which is what brings down a lot of American versions. I've had plenty of great pils in Germany. It is thre that German brewing has become more uniform in recent times though. I've heard that 95% of German lager is now brewed with the same yeast strain, and this is from a German yeast supplier, so I trust their figure. And bitterness has decreased in pilsners in Germany as well. What you then have is a domination of a less bitter, more uniform style of beer that is getting closer and closer to mass market lager in the rest of the world. There are still many, many breweries that are not going down this path, but the ones that make most of the beer are.

 

Source please.

 

Do you mean Summerfest, or this other pilsner by Sierra Nevada others have mentioned in this thread?

 

I think he is right. The most widely used strain is the 34/70 from what I read. If that is used by most of the big breweries, it could be that high. Just like in the USA, about 45-50% of the beer is made with the AB strain of lager yeast. Just saying.

Most brewers after WW2 studied under Narziss at Weihenstefan, and 34/70 was his favorite yeast. From the OCB article on German Pilsner.

 

In the same way that 95% of the beer consumed in the US is from BMC, perhaps 95% of the beer *consumed* in Germany is brewed with this yeast (i.e., Warsteiner, Oettinger, Krombacher, etc. use 34/70. EDIT: now that I think about it, this can't be the case either, as 20+% of the beer consumed in Bavaria is Weizen...not to mention the folks from Koeln and Duesseldorf that consume almost exclusively Koelsch/Alt). But to suggest that the hundreds of idiosyncratic Franconian brewers use 34/70 is a dubious claim at best. I only know of a few brewers in the Bamberg area that studied at Weihenstephan (and, believe me, they will announce it if they do). EDIT2: maybe 95% of the pilsners...but he said lagers.

 

Nobody is mention Beck's or Warsteiner or Bitburger as shining German examples. I wouldn't even consider Beck's a pilsener at this point.

 

Ahhh yes, I stand corrected. I do remember seeing Kolsch on the label. I always mistake it for a Pilsner because the firm bitterness reminds me of a German Pilsner.

 

Considering it started life as a Dortmunder, I never understood why they recently started marketing it as a "Pilsner." I probably answered my own question there: marketing.