Harpoon 100 Barrel Series #15 - Bohemian Pils

Formerly brewed at Harpoon Brewery
Style: Bohemian Pilsener
Boston, Massachusetts USA

Cold 22oz bottle: Pours a clear yellow with a decent ivory head which dissipates slowly. Aroma is of yeast and grass with a hint of citrus. Taste is sweet and malty with bitter notes. Smooth and refreshing.

Bomber: Pours a clear yellow with a large frothy white head, light fruits, grass, hay and flowers in the aroma, starts and ends lightly bitter, medium bodied with a fizzy mouthfeel, bitter dry ending with a grainy character. A very nice example of the style.

Pours a bright gold into a shaker. Frothy, bright white micro head cones above the rim. Clean hop and mild malt aromas (honest to god I wrote that before looking at the description).. Crisp with upfront sweet caramel and a metallic bitter lasting finish.

Thanks to betley78 for the bottle. Clear straw body topped by alush thick stark white head. Looks might fine in the glass. The aroma is doughy, sweet, with some light noble hopping. The flavor is grainy, light hints of dough and hops. Good dose of noble hops also. The problem here is that some adjunsty flavors start to develop and the flavors are a bit out of whack. Extremely dry thin palate. Quenching in a way I guess. Bottom-line, it needs a bit more malt.

Clear light golden pour with a well-sustained head - some sweet, pale/pilsner malt in the aroma, with a mild yeasty quality, light floral notes - flavor is initially somewhat sweet, with herbal notes, followed by an overly-dry Saaz hop smack in the tongue - some mild sweetness in the finish, but not much else - it tastes alright, I guess, but it’s kind of boring and out of balance - a bit above macro lagers, and far below the hallmarks of the style - I keep giving these harpoon 100 barrel beers a chance, and I am so often not rewarded for it - why do I bother?

Pours a perfectly clear light gold with lively carbonation and a rocky lasting white head- some lace. Aroma is of fresh bready malts, and nice fresh zesty herbal hops- czech saaz dominate- also a wierd light sugary sweetness in the nose. Flavor is bready malts, floral and herbal hops- reminds me a bit of troegs sunshine. Has a realy nice clean crisp bitterness in the end. Very easy to drink and refreshing. Great summer pilsner. Finally, a good tasting, well made Harpoon 100 bbl series!

Bomber consumed on 8/5/06.
Fuzzy white head is medium in size, but after the initial flurry of head-bolstering, forced carbonation dies off, thus so for the head. No lacing, no sediment, pasteurized.Grassy, soggy, mossy hops are no where near what I would call anything such as crisp, snappy, lively, or biting. And ya’ need one of those in a Bohemian pils. Just seems like an afterthought of predictable, modestly aromatic hallertauer. More herbal/wet grass than saaz, to me, it seems, though apparently not so. But it just sort of gets cozy with the nose, very fuzzy and warm-toned, again, not at all what a Bohemian pils should be. Of course, it gets no help from the malt, which is sugary, not overly so, but still too much so. It sweetens the already flagging hoppiness and further kills any crispness. And then the yeast. Poor guys, they arent even alive. Hardly much resemblance to a real, live czech pils yeast, though no doubt Harpoon claims/will claim that is what they use. Just like in the saison, there’s barely any yeast character and it just comes off dead and nutty.
By now, I hardly even need to taste the beer, and in doing so am not surprised to find the same, dull, somewhat sweetish honey malts, bland dough, wet grass, herbs, some hay and a fizzy carbonation. No alcohol perceived. Medium body.
Call me biased against Harpoon (I’m not, IMHO), but anyone who thinks this beer is crisp is kidding themselves.

22oz bottle shared by ClarkVV. Pours a pale yellow color with a small fizzy white head. Nose is corny and grassy with some light lemon hints. Palate is thin and fizzy. Flavor is corny and grainy with some light lemon and grass notes.