Herold Svetlé 12°

Brewed by Pivovar Herold
Style: Bohemian Pilsener
Breznice, Czech Republic

The best Pilsner I’ve ever had, period. Even superior to the mighty Pilsner Urquell. It has a superb flowery aroma and a great golden color. The taste is overwhelming. Definitely one of the tastiest beers out there. First it starts with a great, bittersweet maltiness and then the hops explode in your mouth.. truly overpowering. When I go to the Czech Republic, I’ll go to this brewery and swim in their lagering vessels...

True to its style the color is a bright gold, the head ample and white, the lace a delicate film on the glass. The nose herbal, flowery a really smooth tasting beer with just a mild hop bite. The body medium to light, the mouth feel is full and smooth. It starts with a malt sweetness, blends in the middle and a truly delicious hop taste filters through at the finish. A 4.0 on the ABW scale and a mild 27 on the IBU makes this a beer all will love. I got mine from Michael Jackson’s Real Beer Tour, and I know it’s imported by Lionstone International in Lake Bluff, Illinois, and for some strange reason it is not available here in Arizona as I checked with several top notch liquor stores, more likely to be found East of the Big Muddy.

Update: Allow me to mention that this has the most restrained apple flavor, that morphs into this amazing woodiness, hardened with flint. I cannot say enough about the complexity of this Pilsner. I note that I continue to purchase this again and again. Re-rate: I have to bump this up some. I seriously believe that this might be the best Bohemian Pilsner I've ever had. This one has all of the great pilsner flavors and all are put together so beautifully, with that recherche flinty finish. Awesome. Old: A bigger Pilsner, both in malt and hops. Malt reminds me a bit of Lobkowicz Knight: rather big and appley, but this has a sharper, flinty bitterness and a longer finish. Nice long lasting head. Pretty nice.

Deep gold, decent head. Big aroma of hay, grass clippings, some floral, quite hoppy. Hay and kraut flavors play in the mouth, turning floral and finishing with a faint hint of chervil. Good, balancing malt backbone, reminds one of a good multi-grain bread. Top-notch pils, I’ve been really impressed with this brewery.

Seriously underrated IMO - Incrediblyrich buttery oily aroma and flavor components - body is slippery and soapy and wonderful, **SUPER** Saazy snap at the very tail end of the finish - fantastic! Thanks Britt.

Rich golden hue, nice sparkle. Saaz aroma w/ light spices and malt that reminds me of this yellow-ish bread I used to eat in Finland at the university cafeteria (yes, I know that isn’t very helpful, but that’s what it smells like); lovely palate on this one - I’m surprised that it’s only 27 IBUs, I would have guessed low 30’s. There are some beautiful malts in this one - like the Egger Naturgold or Greifenklau I had last weekend - balanced off by the Saaz. The finish is pretty dry, with a fair bit of length. Excellent beer, but moreover if you dropped the hop rate down to 20 IBUs, the malt is so good you’d have an excellent dortmunder.

spicy, hoppy, bitter. does everything right

Bottled: Golden coloured. Nice white head with long lasting. The aroma is rather sweetish, but with some heavy hoppy accents. The flavour is dominated by hops in a very pleasant way. Some sweet and malty charachters as well. Ends with a lot of bitterness on the palate. This is a very good pilsener. In some way it reminds me a little of an IPA.