Draught pint at PP Carlsbad on 3/25/07
Been eyeing this one the whole weekend, but having heard nothing of the brewery, I didn’t jump on the chance to try it right away. Hair of the Dog brunch seemed like a good time for a pils, so here it is.
Rapidly failing white head atop a clear, true-bronze colored body with sporadic carbonation and little/no lacing.
Sweaty, hay and straw-like maltiness in the nose also shows a true lager yeast, with definite moments of crispness and plenty of the mineral character I associate with it, but alas, this one had a good deal of acetyldehyde as well. Not overly concentrated and thus not producing a strong green apple aroma, but lighter and adding a large amount of dry paperiness to the nose that works against the crispness of the malt and yeast. Seemingly pretty well-attenuated from the nose and with no diacetyl or DMS, it’s a shame that it’s got that strong paper-blandness. Hops are extremely minimal. Probably wouldnt kill them to throw in some more, even if it was just more saaz. Not expecting any huge, vibrant, bitter aromatics, but what’s there is a rather boring mess of soggy hop leaves and light nuttiness. Alcohol not apparent, medium to medium-low aroma strength.
Papery-blandness from the acetyldehyde being present in the flavor as well, the beer just never is able to muster much flavor or crispness. Right at the start there is a little flutter of hop bitterness and some light floral/herbal notes, with crisp yeast and light graininess from the malts, but it’s gone almost immediately, passing in to a slightly-too-loosely-carbonated middle that is quite bland, and yields a toasty maltiness that builds up on the palate and gives the mouthfeel an almost chewiness that it shouldnt have. Tough to finish, can’t remember if I did or not. Alcohol not present in flavor, nor any diacetyl/DMS.
Sure seemed like this was in pretty poor condition. Not sure how much of the blame rests on Lightning or Pizza Port.