Five Islands Pigdog Pilsener

Brewed by Five Islands Brewery
Style: Pilsener
Wollongong, Australia

Serve in Flute, Footed Pilsner

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Yet another beer that tasted infected to me. I thought I was drinking some mango flavoured lambic here but no it was mean’t to be a cleansing clean Pilsner. Yuk is all I can say. Damn shame!

By the numbers pilsener lager style beer. Not a lot of aroma, appearence is straw with little head. Flavour is good, solid sessional beer.

Draught at The Australian Hotel, Sydney. I’m pretty sure this was the FI beer I had, it wasn’t acutally labelled. The beer was an attempt at a Pils so I’ll put my rating here. Pours clear golden with a small and lively white head. Aroma of pale malt and fruity hops. The flavour is malt and light citrus. Not really clean for a pils but it’s unoffensive and easy to drink. It’s OK.

Murky orange with a small head. Tasted lke an APA at first with all the citrus but then the nice salty pils came through. Quite chewy and long with a very dry finish.

Not as tasty as the Paddys Pilsener I had a couple days beforehand but still it’s to style and it got better after I had eaten, maybe a touch sweet for me.

UPDATED: OCT 5, 2008 RE-RATE: Bottle (330ml). Poured yellow with a small, rocky, white head which was average lasting. Aroma was of lemon citrus with bitters, honey, lime, sweet malts and light grassy/hoppy notes. Flavor was of sweet grainy malts, with lemon citrus, lime citrus, a light hop bitterness , touch of butterscotch and a dry finish. Light bodied with lively carbonation, a dry mouthfeel, somewhat watery texture and a ok finish. Just was to sweet for me, reminds me of lemon, lime & bitters more than anything.

Clear yellowish gold with a loose frothy head and fine carbonation. Some nice grassy hops, with a bit of a metal touch. Quite malty too, which brings the sweetness level up a little. Somewhat shallow and short, and not a greatly challenging beer, but quite drinkable. (On tap, not quite as good from the green bottle!!).

Bottle. Probably better than i expected it to be. Grassy aroma, with some lightly honeyed characters. Some light sweetness on the tongue, with a touch of bitter hops. Some underlying buttery notes. Finish is a bit crisp.

Bottle (Sydney Summer Gathering 2007): First beer of the gathering and unfortunately it was a little worse for having spent its life in a light green bottle. Slightly hazy gold without much head. What really stood out about this was the skunked grassy and grainy aroma that otherwise showed a great deal of promise. In the mouth it was prett typical with a watery sweet grain note accompanied by some pleasant grassiness and a crisp, though slightly harsh bitterness. From the keg or with a brown bottle this could hold up nicely.

Looking beyond the fact that this bottle was a bit skunked, there was a decent amount of bitterness, fairly crisp and clean tasting, though with a hint of diacetyl. Credible effort.

UPDATED: JAN 28, 2007 Perhaps it was the environment - a sunlit table outside the Australian Hotel on beer festival weekend with the AFL Grand Final to look forward to later - or perhaps it was the rare opportunity to drink fresh pilsener. Either way, I was pretty impressed with this and with the Five Islands range in general. This one had a loose, sudsy head that spackled the glass. There was some butterscotch diacetyl in the aroma but nothing overpowering - for my palate, at least. Also lime marmalade and Saazy notes. Quite an oily mouthfeel and dry in the finish. In the mouth, it’s all diacetyl caramel up-front with some Saaz spice and a long soft, bitter finish. Fresh, this was very drinkable. (Draught at the Australian Hotel beer festival, Sydney, 2006)