Smuttynose Vunderbar!

Brewed by Smuttynose Brewing Company
Style: Pilsener
Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA

Serve in Flute, Footed Pilsner

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Bouteille 12 oz. Achetée chez Half Time (Poughkeepsie). Robe jaune calire, surmontée d’un épais collet blanc. Arôme: houblon, citron, miel , avoine. Goût citronné, bonne amertume,excellent équilibre Un peu mince en bouche. Très bonne pour le style, raffraîchissante à souhait! Belle surprise!

Pours an hazy light yellow with a huge head, aroma of fresh fruits, lemon and a touch of herbs, flavor of herbs, lavender, crisp sourness, Rosemarie, a touch of malt, low sweetness, medium bodied, quaffable

Disappointing 4-pack. No, it’s not that I don’t like pilseners, but this doesn’t seem to offer a whole lot. Pale yellow with good lacing, but I don’t get a lot of malt backbone (the brewer promises bread and biscuits) or hop bite. Only 15 IBU, fair enough, but more late hop flavor needed for me. What’s there is grassy.

Bottle pours cloudy pale gold with foamy white head. Straw, floral, citrus, biscuit. Mild bitterness, mild/moderate sweetness. Medium, creamy body with a hint of liveliness. Nicht so wunderbar.

Note: This rating is for the first batch when it was called “Shortbatch #11”. Not sure if the if the mass-produced Vunderbar measures up to this small experimental first batch, I sure hope so because this was kick-ass.
In short: An exemplary refreshing uber-clean pilsner that doesn’t feel too ‘Americanized’. Excellent.
How: Many bottles 12oz (first batch called “Shortbatch #11) consumed fresh the day after purchase from a NH store not far from Smuttynose.
The look: Cloudy yellow-blond body topped by a medium white head with medium retention.
In long: Nose is bursting with freshness, fresh hay and cereals, pineapples and lemons fruitiness, noble dry grassy hops. Nothing intense here but this soft aroma is irresistible. Taste is exemplary refreshing, an unsweetened pineapple upside down cake, low sweetness crisp biscuist, hay, just the right amount of lemony tartness, fresh pineapples and other tropical fruits, just enough grassy noble hops to dry out the finish without impairing too much bitterness. Mouthfeel is spot-on with a velvety slender body with many soft bubbles. To compare it to a well known example of the style I’d say it is similar to Bitburger, and it was better than the most freshest Bitbuger I’ve had in Europe, and I’ve had a few excellent fresh Bitburgers. A surprising effort from Smuttynose, or from any American brewery for that matter. Truly excellent simple summer thirst quencher. This clean pilsner will probably not get much love on ratebeer, but that’s the cool thing about the internet, people are free to express any opinion they want, yet it amazes me how many chose to come to ratebeer to express the opinion of people with bad taste in beer.

Grassy nose, some skunk. Milky yellow, no head. Grainy and grassy flavor. Fizzy yet quaffable. Well made pils, flavorful, but not heavy.

12 oz bottle. Cloudy yellow brown with a white head. Nose is citrus honey and marigolds; odd one. Crisp and creamy finishing dry and bready. Taste is lemon pith, white pepper and tangerine peel. I might have guessed this was a wheat ale.

Location: 12 oz bottle from Oak Tree, 11/27/12

Aroma: The nose has some pilsener malts, grass, citrus notes, a little straw, and some light spice
Appearance: It pours a clear yellow-gold color with a fizzy white head and light-medium lace
Flavor: The flavor is not very sweet, there’s a plus grassy bitter component and some spice too
Palate: Medium bodied, though it feels fuller considering the style, with a lively carbonation, and a dry finish
Overall Impression: This is a pretty interesting one. The nose made me think I was getting a fairly typical pilsener, but this was actual a quite dry example of the style. I wouldn’t call this an amazing beer, but I found it to be pretty enjoyable.

Poured a very pale yellow color with a thin white head. Aroma has lemons, hay, pale malts, and floral hops. Taste is light and fruity at first with sweetness. Some hay flavors with a touch of grains. Transitions into a more dry floral hoppy finish. A little too much carbonation. Pretty good overall I like the crisp clean flavor.

Draft at Capone’s. Poured pale gold with minimal white head. Nose was pale malt, slight fruit and hops. Tasted pale malty, with midl hops, fruit, and a medium to light palate. A minor disappointment.