My Palaeotis Pils, falling within the German pils style, has been on tap for a few weeks now, and seems to be reaching a peak in quality. Time for a tasting!

• The Basics
  • Original gravity = 1.048, final gravity = 1.011, abv = 5.0%, estimated IBU = 34
• Appearance
  • Pale straw appearance, brilliantly clear, with a tall, fine, white head that settles to a persistent blanket across the top of the beer.
• Aroma
  • A very gentle malty sweetness with a spicy hop note behind that.
• Flavor
  • Bready malt profile, with a firm bitterness that lingers after each sip. It’s definitely a bitter beer, but not out of balance for what I wanted.
• Mouthfeel
  • Carbonation is appropriately high for the style, and it has a crisp, medium-dry finish.
• Would I brew this again?
  • Absolutely! This is an exceptionally nice beer; it nails pretty much every point of the style, and is easy drinking, too. German pils is probably a little hoppier than I would always want in a pale lager, but that’s more of a stylistic thing than a flaw in this particular recipe. The other night, I ordered a glass of Bitburger, often considered a “classic” German pils. Although I didn’t taste them side-by-side, I can say that mine hits many of the same notes as this commercial example. I have my pils entered in an upcoming competition, so we’ll see how my assessment compares to that of the BJCP judges.
• Overall
  • 10/10