Coast Range Farmhouse Hayloft Pilsener

Formerly brewed at Coast Range Brewing Co.
Style: Pilsener
Gilroy, California USA

Straw color with a moderate off-white head. Aromas of grass, grain, dry erase markers, light raisins and other light fruit. Euro lager maybe, Euro Pils not; at least not from the scent. Lightly floral dough flavors. Lightly grainy and a bit dry. Really not much of a pilsener. A lager with pilsener tendencies, but not enough malt or hops definition to make a solid brew. Too sweet , not that crisp and clean. Not quite there in many a ways.

Dark gold body with a large white head. Plenty of small, fast moving bubbles in the lager glass. Funnel cake and light notes of Saaz in the nose. This drinks fairly easy with some biscuit and then sharp celery coming through in the finish. There is also a little bit of black pepper, but it’s only after you swallow. As I drank more, the vegetable sharpness became more like an incessant spice in a food. Decent, but could have used some more balance with a little bigger body for the hops.

This lager has body, character and some of the fruity aspects of an ale. Amazing. It’s drinkable. Coast Range does it again.

This pilsner pours a light orange gold color from a 22oz bottle. Medium to large sized white foamy head. Aroma is fruity and sweet. Touch of graininess. A medium bodied pilsner. Malts are fruity and sweet and grainy and grassy. Lots of orange and citrus flavors as well. Hops are aggressive for a pilsner, fairly bitter grapefruit and citrus. Has a crisp clean taste, a nice malt backbone and a fairly strong hop bite. Needless to say this is my kind of pils. Light and refreshing with lots of flavor. The farm house series of beers from Coast Range continues to be an interesting and very drinkable beers,

Bomber poured a clear golden yellow with a small diminishing white head. Aromas of bread, light carmel and some herbal notes. Palate was light bodied and crisp. Flavors of light carmel, straw and bread with a crisp clean finish.

Bottle. Amber beer with a nice white head. Low spicey hop aroma with some malt. Clean spicey malt flavor. Some lingering spice. Clean, refreshing, easy to drink.

Bomber, Nose is grassy and cirus , mixedwith somefaint sweetness; dark gold, small white head; slightly sweet citrus mixed with a small hop finish.

(22 oz bottle: $2.99 at BevMo in La Jolla, CA) Very grainy, fairly grassy and a bit husky in flavor, but rather on the sweet side, and there’s a surprising fruitiness that doesn’t bother me, but seems to defy the advertised claim that this is a European-style pilsner. Bitter, lightly citrusy hop bite helps to balance the sweetness to some degree, and gradually establishes permanence on the palate. The grainy nose is nearly as sweet as the flavor, but it’s far less hoppy or grassy, and in general isn’t all that aromatic. Medium in body, and despite having a certain crispness, the heavy, sweet malts ensure that this isn’t nearly as clean as many European pilseners. Carbonation is moderate. Pale golden in color with near-perfect clarity, I’m seeing quite a range in the size and speed of the carbonation bubbles. Some are large and move at break-neck speed toward the surface. But others are actually forming not at the base or side of the glass, but right in the middle of the beer -- I’ve never seen that happen before. The white head is very rocky with very wide cells that when they eventually break down, the head deflates. In general, I like that this is a malty pilsener, but I’d enjoy it more if it were less sweet.