Oskar Blues: Mama’s Little Yella Pils (USA: Pilsner: 5.3% ABV)
Visual: Clear yellow to grain. Moderate white loose bubbled head. Low to moderate carbonation.
Nose: Lightly malty. Crisp. Touch of hop bitterness. Banana sweet.
Body: Sweet banana. Malt biscuits and crisp bitterness. Sherbet lemon taste and feel. Pineapple. Peach.
Finish: Malt biscuits, dry hops and bitterness. Jiff lemon on pancakes. Slight pineapple. Slight lime. Quite dry.
Conclusion: How very civilized this beer feels, like all the elements are carefully waiting their turn to express themselves, then when they get the chance they do it is a measured but present manner.
There’s the crisp lager character and similarly crisp hops, balanced rather than big. There is the malt sweetness with banana touches, and a malt biscuit solidness done without being too heavy. That slight sherbet feel lets it move out into restrained lemon and apricot flavours. Unlike some craft beer interpretations this feels like a lager, it doesn’t try to be “big” like an ale, but it still manages to fit it so many elements, with slight tartness, bitterness and well crafted flavours in there. As I say, civilised, nothing trying too hard to grab the limelight and embarrassing itself while shutting out the other flavours.
Now it isn’t perfect, the hops are just a tad muggy in the finish for example, but for the most part it shows the hard to do balance of being restrained rather than booming, yet keeping the complexity in an easy to drink lager. So, on that point, by far the most important point, it does the job right. The sweet and tart flavours exchange places politely, the hops to citrus deftly exchange like dance partners. It is never dull, but always a lager and so easy to drink.
Not perfect, and not like the best of bohemian pilsners that turn out flavor masterpieces, but an excellent casual drinking lager.
Background: Ok, while I’ve not been reviewing many, I’ve drunk quite a few Oskar Blues beers recently and they have been impressing me so far. So I decided to give their Pils a chance, for one thing a pils in a can seems less weird than an Imperial Stout. Its less of a shock to the systems. I grabbed this from Brewdog’s Guest Beer selection. Drunk while listening to Erock’s “No More Heroes”. I found out about the guys music from his “* Meets Metal” range on youtube and decided it was worth throwing some money his way to see what his own tunes sounded like. Fun guitar work and beer, good times.