Christoffel Bier / Blond

Keg on tap at Take 1, Maastricht. Burnt gold with white head. Dry fruity Pils, quite peachy in flavour and also quite bitter on the finish. I also picked up a little vanilla in the body. Some hops on the close.

Cloudy golden poor with a very thin off white head. Aromas of humidity, papaya, honeydew, blood orange? and light hints of hops. Golding like bitterness... longlasting. Medium bodied and creamy. Added flavors of unripened peaches. Surprisingly well balanced... Very good overall.

Bottle Swing-top: Poured a hazy orange color with a thin creamy white head. The aroma is fruit, slightly veggy with notes of hops. The taste is a metal spicy full hopped flavor. Aftertaste is much more than could be desired.

[473-20070728] 330mL (w/ jerc). Light wheat and fruit aroma. Slightly hazy, orange yellow body with a medium-lasting foamy white head. Light wheat spice flavour has a strange dry hops base. Medium body. Those strange dry hops were not exactly pleasantly received on this side of the pond.

Very nice hoppy lager, a bit thicker and lacking the crispness and brightness of the pils, but a very well balanced enjoyable light lager. Fruity and bready biscuity in the malts witih a citrus grassy hop profile. Pours deep gold with a small white head.

Pours with almost a four finger thick, light tan colored head that is fairly large bubbled; as the head falls it leaves some thick, clumping, lacing patterns on the sides of the glass. The beer is a lightly hazy, orangish-gold color. Hoppy aromatic notes of hay, a light herbal notes and a touch of lemon grass mix with malty notes of crushed grain & soda crackers.

Much fuller body than I was expecting, but it is still light; this is most certainly an all malt beer. Sweet malt notes are noticeable, though not anywhere near dominant. Quite a grassy flavor profile towards the finish. An ample hop character is found throughout this; Hints of lemon grass, a big, sharp, herbal hop character and a solid bitterness that shows up from beginning to lingering end. The flavor is actually so much better than the aroma, which had me waiting to be disappointed by the flavors. This has a really good balance between malt and hop, despite being a definitely hop accented beer (even for a Pilsner). The malt provides two main components, a biscuit-like and cracker-like note and a soft malt sweetness. The former accents the grassy hop notes, while the latter provides a structure for all of the other flavors to rest on. The bitterness almost has a vibrant, green hop character to it; it is a touch astringent, certainly bracing, yet always somehow balanced just enough by sweet malt notes.

Definitely a fantastic Pilsner; I was under whelmed by the aroma, but luckily the flavor had everything I was looking for. I do believe there is a hint of diacetyl character here, which contributes positively by accenting the malt character of this beer

Good head. Full flavour with a strong bitterness from the extra hops that lingers into the aftertaste. Still well balanced and refreshing.

Rerate: 5-12-09.
Long lasting medium beige head slowly collapses to a craggy mountain of foam before finally settling down. The most astounding suspended yeast I’ve ever seen in a beer (similar to Two Hearted Ale but better). A couple years and several bottles later, and I’ve yet to find anything to compete with this in the pilsner category. I find it hard to imagine a better pilsner available in North America. Incredible herbaceous hop character, long aftertaste. Water, barley malt, hops, yeast, you can taste it all in high definition. Full-bodied for the style. This one always reminds me why I love beer in the first place.
9 5 10 5 20 4.9

Orig. rating: 7-22-07.
Medium frothy head on a hazy pale gold beer. Nothing in the aroma stands out either way. Full-bodied pale malts backed up with solid grassy herbal hops. Actually very tasty! Certainly refreshing and supremely balanced. I just wish I didn’t have to go all the way to Toronto to get this.
6 4 9 4 17 4.0