Church-Key Scarlet Pilsner

Brewed by Church-Key Brewing
Style: Vienna
Pethericks Corners, Canada

650 mL bottle from the brewery. Doesn’t look like a pilsner - more copper than gold. Small but thick white head. Doesn’t much smell like a pilsner either. It’s sweet brown sugar malt with some tart fruit, bread and floral hops. No graininess. Flavour is on the sweet side, with bread, beernuts, and a little hops and spice. Too sweet, though. No alcohol presence. Light carbonation and thinnish body. Not really a pilsner, but not much of a vienna either. Not terrible, but Church-Key is capable of better.

[2514-20091002] Tap. Smoked baloney chicken lunch meat aroma. Clear, light orange brown body with a quick white bubbles. Grainy and mild lunch meat flavour has mild apple juice characteristics and nice rich mid-tones. Medium-body. Not bad, nice mid-toned beer with good balance.
(21st FFOCB @ C’est What; Toronto, ON)

On tap at C’est What Fall Festival. Pours a clear orange gold with very small white head. Light nose of bread a hint of fruit. Very sweet flavour, fruity and slightly bready. Slight bitterness in finish. Lightly carbonated. So so - not the brewery’s best offering.

Draught at C’est What’s ’Fall Festival of Craft Breweries’. Pours a clear orange with a spare quick diminishing frothy white head. Aroma’s sweet, a bit sugary, along with very light floral hops and grain. Flavour’s also sugary sweet with a bit of fruit, some light hops and a light bitter finish. Average bodied. Just O.K., I’m not loving this, too sweet.

Draught. At 2009 C’est What Fall festival. Clear reddish-amber with an average frothy head. Smells like a bitter or an ESB, only more floral: malty, slightly dry and bitter. The taste follows - mild floral bitterness, sweet oily grainy malt, made me think of hibiscus ... a little chalky/minerally. Average body, somewhat weak carbonation, not much alcohol presence at all, with a little gritty/mineral hard-water aftertaste. I still think this resembles a bitter more than a vienna, but hey, what do I know.

Bottle fresh from the brewery- Thanks for sharing Mark! Clear copper with a frothy beige cap. Nose of fresh punchy hops, a bit of alcohol, Munich malts, flowers and spices. Strong hoppy flavour profile has citrus,flowers and spices, sweet malts too. Caramel bready-ness warms with the alcohol and adds complexity. Quite enjoyable.

ok well not thinking it deserves the low ratings. nose is sweet with a little kinda grainyness and some alcohol. some small head copper color, sweeter malts with some good booze and slightly medicinal almost like a malt liqor from the states intresting

On-tap at C’est What. A light orange colour, a bit of lace. A light Saaz bitterness. A bit of odd taste and impact on the tongue. Not a bad one. Not getting why listed as Vienna.