Shorts Imperial Spruce India Pilsner

Brewed by Shorts Brewing Co.
Style: Strong Pale Lager/Imperial Pils
Bellaire, Michigan USA

Serve in Dimpled mug, Footed Pilsner, Lager glass, Stein

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Thanks to Northernbrews for picking this up for me. WOW!! This thing is packed with spruce. Spicy, warm and full of pine, this is exceptional. By looking at the reviews, it looks like people either love it or hate it. This is original and stands out among other beers. Awesome.

750ml bottle; Shimmering orange pour with a steady stream of tiny cascading bubbles and a sticky white head. I always thought certain hops were able to mimic the juiciness of pink grapefruit. I was wrong. The spruce tips give this the sensation of a ruby red grapefruit being squeezed directly into the glass. So insanely fresh smelling. Honey and caramel are hidden below the fruit. The body opens with a wallop of rindy fruit and bitter pine. The hops and spruce scrub the tongue, allowing softer notes of wildflower honey and caramelized sugars to come through. The body fades into a long and flavorful finish that is both grassy, citrusy and piney. While the nose is near perfect, the body is a bit overloaded with spruce, creating a one-dimensionality in flavor. Still, I love the one dimension that dominates and would consider trying my hand with spruce tips at home. Bravo to one of the most innovative breweries on the scene.

Thanks for sharing, Yaniv... I think! Pours a hazy golden brown with a healthy creamy white head. Big ass pine fucking forest. Malt sweetness is covered up by pine. There isn’t much else to the nose. Thicker, viscous, creamy. Very piney. Oh my god! Sweeter rounder malt. Creamy. Hops are there, but subdued compared to the pine. This is weird, but fun!

Pours yellow with a small head. Aroma is spicy, cardboard, rosemary, lavender, flowers. Tastes like spruce smells, rather chemical, medicin, flowers, bitterness, alcohol burn. Bad.

Bottle. Pours a clear deep golden color with a soapy white head. Aroma is spruce, caramel, citrus, lemon, floral. Flavor is spruce, citrus, caramel, floral. Palate is medium to full bodied, medium carbonation, finished bitter and piney. Very unique brew, I thought it was great when cold, as it warmed more of the spruce flavor poked through and I didn’t like it as much. I gotta give em huge credit for pulling this off as well as they did, cuz this had disaster written all over it. Last one to finish their glass eats the pine cone in the bottom!!

Straw colored pour with a small white head. Deep floral pine aroma. It smells like a freshly cut christmas tree. Just a touch of biscuit malt to balance. Super bitter and aggressive hops in the flavor. Loads of pine with some fresh grapefruit and minimal malt body. Light, crisp body with lots of carbonation.

Pours golden with a white head. Aroma is like a bad perfume: lavender, rosemary, soap, ginger, spice, pepper and some hops. When I tasted this I thought it would be bad for my health to drink it. Like there were chemicals in there which should not be there. Funny to try :) .

Dr dre made this song called gin and juice... could have been this beer he was thinking of. Pours a piss-yellow moisty body med a clear white head. The taste is bitter, and parfumed like an overparfumed sweating southeuropean body. I taste christmas spieces, alot of spruces and alcohol with a parfumed and bitter finish - and strong. The palate is thick and full-bodied... This is the beer-version of the parfume: Davidoff Cool Water

GABF 2007. OK. I don’t know what’s going on here. This shiz is dope. Maybe it’s not as good in bottles as it was on tap. Maybe there’s a new batch that’s not as good as the first. Maybe it falls off A LOT when not sampled fresh. Maybe there’s something in the air in North Carolina that spoils it. Anyway, y’all betta recognize the Shorts Spruce. Toasted malts, spruce, and an underlay of grapefruit on the nose. If an aroma can have a texture, this would be "buttery." Honestly, this smells and (especially) tastes like pure spruce needle essence, surrounded by soft cracker malts (like an awesome lovechild of saltines and graham crackers). Hops and spruce in the finish 4-ev-R. Carbonation is perfect, biting at first and then gentle sussurations of sea foam. Bam. Yeah: bam.

I knew long before i ever cracked this 750 that i would love this beer. I love the smell of pine, i love hops, why would i not like this? I was correct, the spruce smell is amazing. Each sip coats your throat with pine resin, almost sap like, in a good way. The hops seemed to get overpowered for the most part, but the pine worked well so it didnt really matter. Slightly sweet, but its all about spruce, spruce and a little more spruce. If only a guy could find more spruce beers around, you would think more would do it with the hop situation like it is. Me likey!