Butte Creek Organic Pilsner

Brewed by Butte Creek Brewing Company
Style: Bohemian Pilsener
Chico, California USA

very good beer! wonderfully pungent and proper aroma as soon as the cap is pulled. nice tip and end of palate flavors. strong and appropriate czech hop character. recessed german malt character balances the beer near perfection. cleanish finish is ok with me i enjoy the taste! nice and refreshing yet creamy. just a touch of recessed fruit, paired with rainwater cleaness and mouthfeel. there must be re-rates that will rate this beer higher.

Bottle courtesy of CBA: Poured a golden color lager with a small white bubbly head with some minimal retention. Aroma of hops is quite dry with probably a lot of Saap hops in there. Taste is dominated by Saaz hops with a dry finish. Body is above average for the style with some medium carbonation. While this is an enjoyable beer, I thought it was slightly too hoppy for the style with some subtle notes of overcooked vegetable which I didn’t agree with.

This was a big (and pleasant) surprise! Pours a slightly hazy bright pale yellow with a sudsy white head that leaves behind delicate lace for the first half of the glass. Fresh aomas of clean grain, and sharp bitter green leaf (like the tops of cut carrots). Clean shortbread-ish malt, fainlty perfumey, with a very bitter generous hop presence lending flavours of kumquat and citrus peel. A fantastic plsner, and one I don’t mind paying a little extra for!

My notes say, "tastes like water". I am sure there was a little bit of refreshing crispness in the finish, but this does not bode well for the rating of the beer.

10-Sep-07 (12 oz bottle: BevMo in La Jolla, CA) Very grassy, dusty and lemony hop character really sets a bright, snappy tone, dominating the palate with a crisp, spicy mouthfeel from start to finish. The malts lean noticeably toward the grainy side and even show a bit huskiness, but remain in the background, especially in the lingering, moderately bitter finish. Grass, perfume, herbs, lemon, hay, grain, all are present in the nose, but the grassiness is easily the most prominent. Body is light-medium and carbonation is medium. Pale straw in color and also somewhat hazy, but the beer is capped by a small, persistent white head that leaves plenty of patchy lacing on the glass. Overall, this beer isn’t exactly a traditional interpretation of the Czech pilsener style, and in fact, with the aggressive use of hops, it tastes more like a West Coast-style pilsener, but it is remarkably crisp and refreshing to drink – quite a different experience from the first time I tried it!

28-Feb-06 (12 oz bottle: Obtained 01-Feb-06 in trade with wohlfs, thanks Steve!) Pale yellow-straw with a fair amount of haze and several flakes of sediment that stand out like sour thumbs in the pale liquid. The white head rises to less than half an inch and soon settles to a filmy layer, leaving no lace. Lemongrass and husk/corn/grain aromas dominate the nose, with the lemon diminishing significantly within a few minutes of pouring the beer. However, the standard husky grain flavor of these organic beers really establishes total control over this beer once it’s in the mouth, with the mild bitterness of the hops showing a fair amount of presence in the finish. Medium body is quite nice in its own right, but it’s a bit too heavy for a pilsener and lacks the clean, crisp palate as well. While certainly not typical of the style, I find this to be a pleasant beer, but the husky grain malts might be a turnoff for some. (5, 2, 5, 3, 11 = 2.6)

Dry, yeasty cereal aroma with lemon. Butte Creek’s marketing folks have done a good job reworking the branding on their bottles: the label and cap are very cleany done - a nice change from their earlier amateurish packaging. The beer itself is a sunny yellow with a lasting, beady white head. Lemon peely (like the flavor a twist adds to a mixed drink), a little phenolic, moderately hopped. A bit vacant in the middle. An odd watery feel which was just fizzy at the edges. Medium to medium-light body. Finishes out with a lemonpepper sparkle. Overall, I came away from this beer without any strong feelings one way or another -- other than being thankful that I didn’t pay $10 for the sixpack. New Leaf Market.

Date: 11/09/2006
Mode: Bottle
Source: Harry’s

opaque dark yellow, thin fine white head that stirs up to produce a bit of lace, slightly sweet spicy malt aroma, nice big body, nice sharp spicy hop flavor, good malt balance, light yeasty character, nice long bitter finish, big body and very flavorful for a pilsner

Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 13/20
Rating: 3.3/5.0
Drinkability: 8/10
Score: **+/4

Pale cloudy yellow with light white head / Faint grain nose / Light body with little finish / Light grain and honey flavor with astrigent finish / Reasonably balanced but mediocre.