Belhaven Pilsner (Bottle)

Brewed by Belhaven (Greene King)
Style: Pilsener
Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland

500ml bottle from Peckhams, Glasgow. Well it looks like I’m the only one who liked this then. Gold with thin white head. Not a terribly good lager, but they’ve used enough hop to make it interesting. Actually it’s fine. Good lemon and by the bottom of the glass, I rather liked it.

13.08.05, bottle, on the road to Edinburgh (I didn’t drive). We were hunting a B&B in vane, so as the hours went by, I decided to open a beer and write a rating. I take photos of all beers, before I drink them (if possible), so we stopped on the road side, and I placed the bottle on a fence post. Bt it almost caused a traffic chaos - people wouldn’t believe what they saw, and I’m sure some of them still say to each other: Do you remember that crazy woman photographing a beer on a post???? After having had a good laugh, I poured the beer in a plastic glass, so the head was huge. The color is golden and the aroma is lightly metallic. The flavour has weak floral and fruity notes but is quite thin and has no bitterness. And why call a beer a pilsner, if it doesn’t have any bitterness and resemblances a pilsner?

The obvious place to find this is in a bar in Santiago. This is present alon with a number of others from the Belhaven range. It is odd to see a beer of this style made by a Scottish brewery and odder still to expect this to be true to style. Well, at least my expectations weren’t shattered even though my wallet suffered somewhat. I understand that it should cost me something like $9 Aussie given the trip this has to make but I am only really happy to pay this when the product is good. If this is a pilsner I’m a Mayan god of fertility. The colour and head are about the only aspects of this beer that are true to style. In all other respects this is a poor attempt at a pils, very little hop aroma and flavour, poor mouthfeel and an overcarbonated finish that ends up very dry. Certainly a pill that is hard to take.

[bottle at peckhams beer tasting] very weak aroma, faint aroma of citric hops. weak body, very faint dryness in the finish.

Pechams beer tasting. I seem to be workign my way though the belhaven beers at the moment, this is not thier finest example by any means. Seriously minimal aroma, maybe hops if you can find it. Taste is also hops but with a terrible mouth feel that left a bad taste in my mouth. Try some of thier scotch ales insted.

Good, but is not a Pilsener as some others. I was like a strong yellow Ale, almost white. BUt it was nice so far, just have to consider that is very soft.

Bottle from Asda. Pale yellow with white head. Aroma of hay, distant peachy hop. Doesn’t have the Belhaven smoky character I was expecting....Until I put it in my mouth - smoky metallic notes with a soft metallic finish.

Disappointing! Highly carbonated, lacks any hop flavour, certainly malty,but unbalanced and unpleasant.Bottle from Tesco.