Krušovice Imperial 12°

Brewed by Královský pivovar Krušovice (Heineken)
Style: Bohemian Pilsener
Krusovice, Czech Republic

Pours a blonde almost golden color with a nice medium head with decent retention The aroma was some nice fresh cut hay and a little noble hops with some grainy malt. The flavor is nicely balanced with just a tiny trace of adjunct that if I had not been looking for it, I perhaps would not have noticed. There is a nice Saaz hoppiness to this one making the beer nicely bitter with just a bit of sweet maltiness for balance, the malt character is almost like lightly toasted bread.

Nicely hopped beer with some metal flavors. Softly hopped with crisp flavor. Malty flavor with hay and hops too. Dry palate.

She poured enthusiastically from her 16.9oz brown bottle depths into my large pilsner glass. Golden hay spreads out before my eyes while a playful white head tufts and billows above the gentle carbonation below. A delicate web-work of lace marks her slow decompression. Lifting her golden depths to my nose, I am transported to lush fields of green grass while I lounge in my chair with a plate of water crackers for nibbling. A lemon orchard nearby tinges the air with gentle lemon esters as my toes curl in blissful nirvana. Our first kiss on this gorgeous sunshiny day is bright and grassy with a wisp of bitterness in the finish. The lemon is fresh and refreshing, leaving also a whisper of bitterness in the back. Water crackers provide the perfect middle, mingling with husked grains for a crisp presence through and through. Czech lagers/pilsners are fragile creatures, but she has survived her harsh trip to the States and my quickly diminishing glass with grace and aplomb. Czech lagers/pilsners win with simple complexity and crisp refreshment which highlights the best nature has to offer, and the Krusovice Imperial 12 is no exception.

Complex is great, yet so is simplicity. I would recommend drinking her as fresh as possible, always. Krusovice handily dates their bottles with a bottled-on date so you know how fresh, or not fresh, yours is. Pop a couple open and share one with a friend and show them what a real lager/pilsner tastes like.

Radegast: pilsner:pours a clear golden straw high pour bubbles settling into 1 finger of head. The nose is grainy, slightly bitter/ skunk but only mildy... actually smells good. The taste was not as pleasant: some of the same grains available in the nose however without complexity. More thin and less body than I would have liked, more like flavored, carbonated water.

Clear golden pour with white head. Nice malt aroma. Crisp semi-sweet malty flavor. Head thinned out but lacing still occured. Left a malty aftertaste. Better than American mass produced lagers.

Situation: Add-in on a Shop-Rite Liquors trip--tough to pass up stand-alones that are under two bucks! Glassware: 23 oz. pilsener... Appearance: thin golden body, light effervescence, with a thin iced tea head that shifts in unison with its body--odd... Aroma: subdued, light ping of Saaz; not as pungent as Czech or Polish varieties often are...some fruity notes too... Palate: thin, watery body that projects a bit gassy, but overall quite a basic, predictable mouthfeel... Taste: plain, pleasant compliment to food--like these nachos--but rather nondescript...not corny, but lacking the malts necessary to bring a fuller profile... Overall: finishes as it starts, rather predicatbly but not awfully, while avoiding the butt some pilsners in green bottles will peddle...

500 mL bottle from Beer Run in Charlottesville, VA. Pours a light amber color with a thin head. Fair head retention and lacing. Very weak aroma of grassy hops and a light graininess. Taste is very similar.... grassy slightly bitter hop notes with faint notes of toasted grain and caramel. Very thin and watery. Not a good mouthfeel at all, which is a shame as it’s otherwise fairly solid.

A drinkable Czech pilsner, but far from the best around. Pouring one plus finger of frothy white head, the body was a clear medium gold colour. Aroma was hopped and grassy, quite pleasant to inhale. Taste was a little less nice than the nose, with a sharper bitterness than I’d expected. Mouthfeel was also a bit on the sharp side; at least the aftertaste was a bit more subdued.