LAmère à Boire Cerna Hora

Brewed by LAmère à Boire
Style: Bohemian Pilsener
Montreal, Canada

Note: Since they’ve switched to whole leaf Saaz (they used pellets before), this beer has gone from very good to world-class. A simply gorgeous BohPils.

The Lure:
Lovely biscuity pils malt and yeast interplay serving as fluffy cushions for the hovering oily, earthy Saaz hoppiness. Mild citrus fruit swimming within. This is a spot-on quality re-creation of the Czech pils which many Czech breweries would be proud of. The only thing which could be improved upon for a perfect emulation would be a loftier head of foam, as this one possesses a very shy, although lingering, ring.

The Festivities:
Again, the pils malt cookies and Czech yeast hug so amorously, they are difficult to distinguish separately. Oily, earthy hops are prolonged into a sublime grassy, herbal bitterness, aided into balance by the aforementioned yeast/malt love affair. Citrus fruit are definitely admitted into this humble palace, and converse amicably with all participants. I can practically smell the cheese-filled meat and its paprika sauce, and see the accompanying knedlikys and potato pancakes, this is how real this bohemian pilsner is.

Transcendence:
Red roofs, cobblestone streets, intermingling gothic and renaissance architectures, church spires on the expansive town square...peace within me.

The pour reveals a clear golden color with a medium, creamy, white head. Superb aroma of hay, noble hops and malt. The flavor is near perfect, there’s floral, fruity, noble hops with hay and crisp, robust malt, it finishes with bitterness. The body has a full thickness with a creamy texture and gentle carbonation. This is a superb pilsener.

Couleur jaune foncé, presqu’orange, petit collet. Arome d’houblon très présant. Goût d’houblon sucré et rafréchissant. Très bon!

Re-rate: Sazz hop nose and biscuity malt aroma. Clear golden coloured with nice white head that recedes to a good cover and thick ring. Hops nicely balance malty flavour with a nice crispness and a restrained but lasting bitterness. Mouthfeel is smooth and creamy. Subdues carbonation allows appreciation of the subtleties of this offering at length. On tap at the brewpub. Original rating 6-4-9-4-18=4.1: Somewhat slight hop aroma. Beautiful clear golden caramel colour. Excellent carbonation with a nice clean white head. Very grainy and biscuity flavour with wonderful full-body. Saaz bitterness shines through in the finish. On tap at the brewpub.

This is the best Czeck Pilsner I’ve yet had that is brewed in North America. It has a huge Saaz profile, but pretty much all bittering character, perhaps a little in the flavour but none in the aroma. A totally quenching beer.

The most surprising beer from my visit. Large tall foamy head with a copper and light orange colored body. Has a soapy, buttery nose which reminds me of some "open fermented" German pils and wheats: dusty bread crumbs and toasted grains, yeast abounding everywhere... leaving a sour corn and musky but fresh taste of cereals, oatmeal, granola, that sort of thing. Very fresh tasting, and a great example of a session pils. Very flavorful.

Solid appearance for a pilsner, golden with a big white head, very foamy and nicely sticky. Aroma of baked cookies, pancakes and light fresh Saaz hops. This is pretty good, good malty character well-balanced by the meticulous hopping which bring a nice herbal saaz cripsness, the finish is a little watery, the bottom of the keg perhaps.. The body is top notch though, filling and velvety. / A few weeks later, I find it far less crisp with a more restrained Saaz character, surprisingly not so consistent? From 3.7 to 3.4/ Seems to vary between 3.1 and 4.1 between my visits. I’ll round this up to 3.6, but know that you can face something spectacular when ordering this.