Spruce Pilsner
Short's Brewing Company in Elk Rapids, Michigan, United States 🇺🇸
Spiced / Herbed / Vegetable / Honey - Herbal Rotating|
Score
6.85
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Every June the Short’s team gathers and heads to the wilderness to hand-trim the fresh, juicy tips off of local blue spruce trees so that we can make a couple of very special beers, including Spruce Pilsner. This is a historic beer for us, one of the 13 beers in the 2007 Imperial Beer Series, and admittedly one of Joe Short’s favorites. But how does it taste, you ask? Exactly the way a spruce tree smells. If you love gin, if you love the smell of pine, you will love this beer.
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Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Cloudy yellow, but shiny. Huge, huge, huge spruce spruce spruce aroma and first hit to the palate. The spruce hangs on with the aftertaste, but it is tempered with light malts and citrus. A very distinct aroma and flavor that I like . . . probably because it reminds me good times in northern Michigan forests. I don’t know that I would drink this regularly if it were a year-round beer, but I really enjoy it when it is seasonally available.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Can from Livonia Liquor. Pours a clearish gold with full two fingers of white soapy foam that lingers. Lots of pine and dank bitterness in the nose with caramel malt and mineral aromas. Palate is similar, sharply bitter though. Lingering pine and malt on the finish. Very bitter and spruce-like.
jgb9348 (11734) reviewed Spruce Pilsner from Short's Brewing Company 8 years ago
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 5.5
Very slightly hazy golden coloured body with a thin, half centimetre tall off-white head. Aroma of spruce, pine, alcohol, light malt and a bit of mellow sweetness from earth. Light to Medium-bodied; Strong rich spruce and pine flavour with a lot of bitterness and funk with a little sweetness from sap or syrup and a kick of alcohol, earth and more pungent spruce. Aftertaste shows a lot more spruce, bitterness, alcohol, pungency, pine and earthy flavours with the lager yeast and body showing through along with some mellow sweetness on the very end. Overall, a decent beer, but too much of the lager shows through as a nasty, funky beer and too much spruce is in here for me without any roasted malt, which is nice to have it different, but it just doesn’t work out too well. I sampled this twelve ounce bottle purchased from Merchant’s in Dearborn, Michigan on 24-July-2015 for US$2,99 sampled at home in Washington on my youngest daughter’s second birthday on 02-January-2017.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
bottle - Pours slightly hazy light gold with a one finger white head. The aroma is predominantly spruce with maybe some pale or bready malt underneath. The flavor is all about the spruce, like chewing on an evergreen, not that that’s something I’ve ever done but if I had I’d imagine it would taste kind of like this beer. That’s not as bad as it sounds, but it’s hard to decide how much I like it. It’s different anyway. There’s some hops bitterness in there too, but the finish is spruce laden too.
JK (8140) reviewed Spruce Pilsner from Short's Brewing Company 11 years ago
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
GABF 2014. Tons of pine aroma and flavor. Gold color, dry overall as a pilsner should be. if you like pine/spruce aromas, you would probably enjoy this beer.
nimbleprop (16618) reviewed Spruce Pilsner from Short's Brewing Company 12 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Sampled at GABF 2013. Pours a clear gold with a ring of white head. Nose has some spruce, malt, pine, dusty. Sweet flavor, citrus, pine, soap, spruce, honey. Clean finish. Decent.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Bottle. Sweet floral pink grapefruit aroma. Hazy golden with a moderate off-white head, nice lacing. Bready malt, lemon, floral grapefruit, and spruce flavor with a moderately piney bitter finish. Light to medium body, low carbonation.
SHIG (13859) reviewed Spruce Pilsner from Short's Brewing Company 13 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Bottle thanks to Mikem409: Poured a murky yellow with a nice soft white head. The aroma has that full on spruce and hops that makes this an interesting pils in the nose. Nice bitterness from the hops and spruce make this tingle on the tongue, a pure enjoyment which most pils lack in my mind. So much going on and not ordinary at all.
superspak (10163) reviewed Spruce Pilsner from Short's Brewing Company 13 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
12 ounce bottle into pilsener glass, bottled 6/14/2012. Pours hazy golden straw color with a nice 1-2 finger fairly dense white head with very good retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lingers. Good spotty lacing clings down the glass as you drink; with a fair amount of carbonation streaming up. Aromas of lemon, citrus peel, grapefruit, bread, herbal, floral, spruce, pine, grass, and earthiness. Very nice aromas that are extremely unique; and have great balance with a nice hop profile as well. Taste of big orange, pine, grapefruit, lemon, pepper, spruce, floral, earth, and big herbal spiciness. Nice amount of pine bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of orange, grapefruit, lemon, pine, spruce, floral, earth, and herbal spiciness on the finish for a while. Great bitterness and hop flavor balance with the malt profile; with good complexity. Medium carbonation and body; with a nice fairly creamy and slightly sticky mouthfeel. Alcohol is very well hidden with only a slight warming noticed after the finish. Overall this is a very excellent and unique imperial pilsner. Great hop profile and balance; and extremely easy to drink. Highly enjoyable.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Draft at Crunchy’s, East Lansing. Hazy straw body, medium tight buff head. Bitter catty hops nose with hints of spruce. Lots of bitter, tannic spruce in the body, the spruce tending to dominate the catty hops and light biscuity malts. Reminds me of a gruit backed by hops for extra effect. If the beer was true to northern Michigan Picea glauca or P. mariana tips would be the ingredients of choice, but I digress...