Nicolet Dark Pilsner

Brewed by Nicolet Brewing Company
Style: Pale Lager
Florence, Wisconsin USA

Festival Tap: Clear brown, nicely carbonated with a very toasty nose. Light coffee notes throughout.

Sampled at Great Taste of the Midwest. Very nice aroma, rich roasted malt, chocolate, coffee. Dark, mostly opaque, thin head; off-white. Flavor is blah, plain, nothing to right home about. Not an inspiring brew for my 400th.

RERATE: I assuredly had an infected bottle of this the first time around - it still seems oddly sour, but having had Kraftbrau’s version of this dark Czech style recently, I recognize the flavor as stylistic and intentional. The sour edge balances nice roasted flavors and produces a fine deep night of a beer. The brewers tells me that they’ve had consistency problems due to unfortunate handling by distributors in the past. Now they handle their own distribution, so it’s less likely to get a slimy bottle like the ones Legion and I tried in the past. Original Rate 12/28/2001 (.9) The bock and the ’dark pils’ have the same annoying yeasty, cidery sourness that really prevents you from drinking a full bottle. The dark pils is the worse of the two, with notes of stomach acid as well.

A decent american dark. Dark copper color, with a light colored head that diminishes rather quickly. Slight DMS and dark roast aroma. Flavors of dark roasted malt. Schwartz beer qualities. Medium body. Fairly light hops in the finish.

Deep-dark porter-like; Head was thick and dense; Nice roasted nose. So far so good- let me taste this real quick **moving it towards my mouth**- YUCK. So much promise in this beer- looked good smelled good, but tastes like s**t! Sour, cola-like. I though it might be a bad bottle until I saw the rate by Hennes. Maybe these guys should give it a rest.