Free State Fireside Imperial Pils

Brewed by Free State Brewing Company
Style: European Strong Lager
Lawrence, Kansas USA

(Savor, draft) Clear apple-juice body with medium off-white head. Aroma is medium sweet, honey, grassy. Taste is medium sweet, grassy, light honey. Medium-full body, lightly sticky.

Draft sample is mostly clear deep yellow with a white head. Wet, oily, hop nose, with a twangy note of pils malt and an overbearing amount of alcohol (which in a pils can be as low as 6-7%). Too thick, too viscous, but the palate is silky and bitter, with a light, dry hop flavor in the finish, and a moderate amount of yeast character tasted, but very clean and light for what that’s worth. Good beer.

From the growler. Thanks to hurrisnow for the beer. Pours a deep golden yellow with a poofy white thick head. Amazing fantastic aroma of butterscotch and fresh barley malt. Flavor does not live up to the devine aroma, but is very tasty nonetheless. Rich and malty, has only a mild amount of bitterness. An easy drinker for the new "style."

Growler. Thanks, BVC, Theisti, the academy, et al. Beautiful dark honey gold. Thin white head. Odd old wet grass nose. Light, cottony, watery body. Slightly sour old rotting grass on the mid-palate. Mild resiny finish.

Draft: Dark yellow. Creamy white froth clings with each sip. Grainy, unpolished aroma with strong scents of DMS and dough yeast. Slightly grassy and floral, but minimal hoppy brightness. Densely bodied. Brisk grassiness and herbal hop elements tease the palate, but the poorly extracted malts are extremely grainy and popcorny and soon eclipse all remaining brightness. Doughy yeast also taints things by coating the palate which compounds the low attenuation by imparting an unpleasant limpness. DMS also dulls the flavor as it nearly deadens the palate with a metallic zing, and obliterates the lemony- and herbal-hop poignancy. Hop bitterness teases the palate, but never climaxes, generating merely a pinch of grassiness toward the finish. Malts reveal some late pleasant softness, but remain intrusively husky, throughout. This resembles malt liquor than anything else…just riddled with DMS. And the poor attenuation results in a body which is too full for its own good and doesn’t contain nearly enough of the obligatory pilsner brightness (elegant maltiness, proper attenuation, poignant and juicy hop medley, etc.) to compensate. Easily one of the more disappointing offerings from this quality brewery.

Draft at the brewery. Gently sweet, pale malt aroma, some mildly spicy, grassy and even a bit vegetal hop character, some faint pepper in the background. Clear light-medium golden color, head is white and sparse but leaves some nice lacing. Flavor parts is nearly equal parts sweet and bitter, with sugary, nearly malt-liquorish maltiness (much cleaner and more organic, though, of course, than your standards of that breed) meeting leafy, spicy, herbal hops in no insignificant amount, finish seems to be unable to hide a brief flourish of alcohol. Truly comes off as an amped-up Pils, but not in an unrefined manner, although it does seem to have an aura of danger about it, heh.

On tap at the brewpub. Pour brilliant golden yellow with a sticky snow white head. The nose is mostly pilster malt with a noble like hop aroma. The flavor is pretty malty too. Almost sweet. Just enough bitterness to keep it from being cloy. Medium body. Drinkable. Average carbonation. I’d like more. Balanced finish. Not a bad beer, though more hop couldn’t hurt (I don’t think).

Growler from the brewery, filled 5 days previously, by way of JB. Pour is only the slightest haze - golden with a one inch off white head. Nice lacing sticks to the glass as I drink it down. Aroma was immediate upon opening the growler, bright fresh spruce pine and sap. Once its in the glass, some nice resin bitterness comes through, with toasted Pils malt and a very faint hint of vanilla sweetness. Fresh and complex nose. Taste is the bitter resin pine hops and sweet bready malt. There is also a bright chemical sharpness that was a bit of a surprise. Wasn’t too pronounced, but was distracting. Palate is on the thin-medium side, slick with a grassy finish. The pine hops linger. Overall, an interesting beer - this is the first of these "big Pils" that I had that actually tasted like a Pilsener. Thanks for lugging this back from Lawrence, JB.