Port Brewing Panzer Imperial Pils

Brewed by Port Brewing/Lost Abbey
Style: European Strong Lager
San Marcos, California USA

Hazy orange pour with minimal head. Bright, hoppy aroma. Light citrus and bread. Very strong alcohol and hoppy flavor with bready malt. Finished with grapefruit rinds and alcohol. Mouthfeel doesn’t get syrupy, which is appreciated. Pretty cool beer.

Taster@San Diego Festival of Beers: Hazy golden color with a small white head. Aroma is lightly hoppy with a little cutrus. Flavor starts lightly sweet with citrus and a grassy taste followed by a light grapefruit finish. Light body has moderate carbonation.

Hazy gold with big, foamy white head / Nose of yeasty bread, lemon, and violets / Medium body, somewhat sweet, creamy with good malts balancing potent hops, and with smooth, slightly hot, finish / Flavors of orange, lemon, apple, bubblegum, violets, chrysanthemum, honey, and hops / Pilsner character dwarfed by the big, hoppy, ale-like character of this stunner.

On tap at the Belgian Cafe Pours a hazy cloudy bright golden yellow with a one finger frothy white head that quickly settles into a lasting ring, leaving sporadic patches of soapy lacing. Aroma is very hoppy, especially for the style with a very strong alcohol presence as well as bready yeast, pilsner malt and some earthy grass/straw notes. This beer is very hop forward and lingers into a bready yeasty body with a decent pilsner malt backbone. Slight earthy grass notes are followed by a very astringent strong alcohol finish. I don’t really know how you could call this a pilsner. It seems like they pitched some pilsner malt into some kind of hoppy alcohol juice. Way too hoppy and too much of an alcohol presence. The body is full with some of the above mentioned bready yeast but the ABV is not masked at all. This beer is kind of a sloppy mess. They just hopped up some ingredients and slapped the word imperial on there. Avoid this one.

Poiured a cloudy golden color with an ample white head and good lacing. The aroma was some sweet, bready malts and plenty of dry pine hops. The flavor was slightly sweet with some grass and a relentless bitter aspirin flavor on the finish that I found very distracting. The mouthfeel was above average. Overall it was a bit of a mess.

Like Mikkeller Draft Bear, it’s hard to pretend that anything that’s hazy and hopped to hell and back with American hops has anything to do with Pils. Tasty though, even if I have to dock it a point overall for completely violating the style. Cloudy rich yellow, white head, moderate lacing; great appearance. Nose of sweet malts and a wonderful excess of hops. Taste of sweet malts and enormous bitter hoppiness, in perfect balance. I love this, but I cannot really call it an imperial pils. I don’t really care, it’s great, but it’s not a pils.

Pours bright gold into a shaker. Bright white head with medium retention recedes to skim surface. Sweet caramel malt aromas. Thick with upfront caramel and resin. Lasting grapefruit and alcohol finish.

Bottle. Pours a slightly cloudy brilliant yellow color with a short lived yet lacy head development. Aroma is a mix of light fruits such as apricot, lemon, and a touch of grapefruit. Some stale hops in there as well, with a sweet candy sugar and coriander note hanging above the malt. Flavor follows the sweet sugary character of the aroma, with a good bitter hop punch on the back end. Alcohol becomes increasingly noticeable at the end of each sip. Medium to thin body, modest complexity. Interesting.