VPL - Virginian Pale Lagers

It took eight weeks, but by last Saturday I was actually getting a little bit of cabin fever, so I asked Mrs V if it would be ok if I went out to do the weekly shop. Generally Mrs V is our designated person for doing the shopping during these weird times as both myself and one of my boys are asthmatic, and so we want to minimise the possibility of either of us getting sick.

There were ulterior motives for wanting to get out of the house for a few hours, namely it was Mother's Day and I needed to get Mrs V a card, some fancy booze, and ingredients for dinner. I also wanted to pick up some different beer from Wegmans as they still do BYO six packs, and so ended up with a selection of 2 Czech style Pilsners, 2 German style Pilsners, and a pair of Munich Helles.

I started with the two Czech style beers, both of which I have drunk plenty of over the years but not really sat down and analysed them.

Champion Brewing Shower Beer

• Sight - pale golden, healthy quarter inch of foam with good retention, superb clarity
• Smell - Cereal grain, hay, touch of lemon, some floral hops
• Taste - Bready malt base, spicy hops, nice citrusy, clean, bitterness
• Sweet - 2/5
• Bitter - 3

In so many ways this is a wonderful Czech style pale lager. Only 4.5% abv, 100% Saaz hops, a really nice firm bitterness and a lingering clean finish pointing to good clean fermentation. If I were comparing to some of the pale lagers back in Czechia, I would put this in the same league as Herold, a good solid brewery with a devoted following.

Port City Brewing Downright Pilsner

• Sight - Slightly hazy pale gold, good firm white head, nice retention
• Smell - Lemony and lime citrus character, some breadiness, alpine meadow floral notes
• Taste - Bready malt character, some spice, bit lemony edging to pithy, clean fermentation
• Sweet - 2.5/5
• Bitter - 3.5/5

Medium bodied, with high carbonation, almost too bitter in some respects, citrus character borders of pithiness.

As I said, I have drunk plenty of both these beers of the years, and am of the opinion that they are dead certs for being in the top five pale lagers in Virginia. I am pretty sure that both would go down pretty well back in Czechia too, but they just don't reach the heights of something like Pivovar Hostomice's majestic Fabián 10°, Únětický's 12°, or the much missed Kout na Šumavě 10°. Making a not entirely unreasonable assumption that the ingredients are broadly similar, I do tend to think that the difference is in process, in particular the fact that Czech breweries still do decoction mashing, and that the Maillard reactions that causes brings something indefinable to the glass that focusing on ABV, IBUs, and other brewing by numbers stats simply cannot bring to the beer? I say it fairly often, but decoction really does matter if you want to make an authentic Czech style lager, regardless of colour or strength.

Moving from Czech style pale lagers over the border, so to say, to German style...

Basic City Our Daily Pils (unfiltered)

• Sight - Pale gold, slight haze from being unfiltered, thin white head, distinctly not fizzy
• Smell - Subtle malt sweetness, fresh bread crust, floral hops, some citrus like mandarin
• Taste - Bready malt with a touch of biscuity sweetness, slightly earthy, spicy hops and a trace of citrus
• Sweet - 2/5
• Bitter - 2.5/5

This has actually become something a regular tipple for me. Back in open pub days, ah the memories, I enjoyed many pints of it at Beer Run, often sat at the bar of a Friday afternoon with work done and the boys yet to be picked up from school. At 4.8% it sits squarely in the ball park for a German pils and has all the refreshing drinkability you would expect from Germany's finest. Definitely a welcome addition to Virgini'a lager scene.

Lost Rhino Brewing Rhino Chaser

• Sight - Gold, thin white head, dissipates quickly, good clarity
• Smell - Mostly cereal and bread upfront, almost worty, with some subtle spice
• Taste - Sweet, sugary caramel notes, a little hop flavour with a spicy cinnamon finish
• Sweet - 3/5
• Bitter - 2/5

This actually reminded me more of the modern Festbier than a pilsner. At 5.6% it is simply too strong to be authentic, but then the can does tout that the brewery has ""Americanized" the classic European Pilsner", a turn of phrase that strikes fear into my heart as it invariably leads to a disappointing drinking experience. If you want to make a pilsner, make a fucking pilsner. If you want to make a strong pale lager then make a strong pale lager. Just as decoction matters, so do styles when it comes to setting the drinker's expectations.

Ok let's leave the pilsners behind and venture into Helles.

Bingo Lager

• Sight - Yellow, excellent clarity, fizzy, lots of bubbles, no head at all (WTF?)
• Smell - Light floral hops, slightly grainy, generally indistinct
• Taste - Bready malt, clean citrus bitterness, touch of corn in the finish
• Sweet - 2/5
• Bitter - 2.5/5

I want to give the brewery the benefit of the doubt here as there seemed to be a dink in the seam of the can lid, which may help explain the absolute absence of head. When I swirled the glass half way through drinking I did come some white foam but it disappeared quickly. The beer itself is well balanced and decent enough, I guess I will have to buy another one just to see if the can lid theory works out.

Stable Craft Helles

• Sight - Pale golden, think white head, fizzy, good clarity
• Smell - Crusty bread, spicy hops, earthy, some rather odd onion/garlic notes in the background
• Taste - Non-descript, some malt, some hops, prickly carbonation, lacking clean lager character
• Sweet - 2/5
• Bitter - 1.5/5

This one was a major let down. I was willing to give Stable Craft a try because I have enjoyed their brown ale from time to time, but this was dull and muddled rather than bright and zingy as I would expect from a Munich Helles.

We are lucky in some ways in Virginia that we have some decent pale lagers being brewed, but we also have some that are simply sub-par, and in this tasting we ran the gamut of what is out there in that regard. On the helles front it is safe to say that once South Street have some of their My Personal Helles back in stok I will be slaking my thirst with it.