Samuel Adams Imperial Pilsner

Brewed by Boston Beer Company
Style: European Strong Lager
Boston, Massachusetts USA

2007 Version. Cloudy orange, decent spongey white head. Juicy sweet citrusy aroma. Flavor is similar -sweet at first, then a pleasently rough hop finish. Fairly heavy on the palate. I liked it.

I really didn’t like this, to be honest. Hazy, light orange-brown color. Malty vanilla with a slight alcohol edge. The hops left too much in the finish and it ended up seeming one-dimensional. I’m sure some people may appreciate what they’re doing in the manor of an European Strong Lager, but I still didn’t care for it. // October 2007: I had the Hallertau version, now, which has a wonderful aroma but tastes like mosquito repellant. Bleh.

2005 Harvest pours a cloudy orange-amber color witha nicely lacing pale orange tinted head. Aroma shows lots of hops with a little fruitiness thrown in. Nice bit of bitterness in the taste and aftertaste. You don’’t really taste the alcohol just the hops making it taste more like an IPA, although the aroma is more Pilsener.8/4/8/4/16 4.0 2007 12 oz bottle; Nose of the hops explodes out as you open the cap; Nose is grassy flowery hops with a lagerish graininess and caramel; lightly hazed dark gold with a big, glass-lacing yellowish head; flavor has hop bitterness, light caramel, a little sweetness, a a touch of orange zest. Great ESL! 12/5/07

Pours hazy and with a solid depth of color. Gorgeous. Nose is hallertau to the max, so straightforward and endlessly delightful. Resinous. Phenolic. Also apricot. The overall intensity combined with quaffability makes this entirely enjoyable.

24oz. Bottle: Arom was hoppy and sweet with hints of resin, citrus, and pine. Smells like an Imperial IPA. Poured dark kakhi/yellow color. Appears viscous. Very hazy and opaque. Average light baige head. Medium whitish lacing. Tastes of hops, and some pepper. The flavor has a medium sweetness in the middle, but the beer and its finish are ultimitaly very bitter. Finish was dry as well. Full bodied. Thick texture. Lively carbination. Long, dry, bitter finish. Overall, I would never call this a lager nor pils. It’s really like an IIPA. Still, it was tasty. Not just no as refreshing as I had expected.

(24 oz bottle: $4.99 at BevMo in La Jolla, CA) Oh my! I’m sitting here, taking a sip every 30 seconds or so, totally stunned, repeating the word "Wow!" over and over and over. I’ve never been a Samuel Adams basher because I think for the most part their beers are decent enough, and several are quite solid, but this Imperial Pilsner is exceptional. No question, the hops are the showcase here. Very hoppy, very bitter, very resiny, and very fresh tasting, it’s like eating freshly dried hops. The first few sips are just an all out hops blitz on the palate. Better be a hop head if you hope to like this beer! I definitely like hops, but the reason I’m loving this beer so much is that there is more than enough malt here to provide a substantial base for balance. Sweet, grainy, malty, plenty of that tea flavor I like so much in an "Imperial" beer. In fact, it’s the tea and the plentiful malt that gets this beer close to Imperial IPA range in my opinion. Alcohol isn’t especially noticeable when the beer is cold, but it becomes fairly evident as it warms up, however it never becomes even a slight problem, even as the beer warms up. I could tell the beer was fairly viscous just by watching the syrupy pour, and this is also clearly evident in the heavy, somewhat sticky mouthfeel. The intense hops keeps the palate fairly crisp in the finish for a beer this thick and heavy. The nose is grainy and hoppy, but surprisingly the hops aren’t nearly as bright in the nose as in the flavor. I have to say, the aroma is nice, but still a mild disappointment. Bright amber in color and fairly hazy, this effulgent beer is obviously much darker than most pilseners, and the off-white head rises to about an inch in height during the pour, settling to a quarter-inch layer and holding there. A moth-eaten curtain of lace covers much of the glass. Frankly, as a brewery that has led the way for the craft brewing industy back in its infancy, I’m thrilled to see another excellent specialty offering from Sam Adams. This is a fantastic beer in just about every respect, and will make an excellent Christmas present to my friends that appreciate quality beer.

Cloudy bright orange pour, with frothy, lasting white head - nothing really pilsner-like about this, more like and imperial IPA - crisp hops abound in the aroma, but they are overpower by a very strong, fruity/estery smell, and a heaping helping of sweet, biscuity malts - same thing goes for the flavor - lots of hops, sure, but the malts are the stars of the show - grapefruit and other citrus mix surprisingly well with caramel, toffee, sweet, bready malts - smooth, creamy, lasting finish, with bright hops coming back in the try and balance the extreme sweetness - not bad - probably the best from this brewer I’ve had in a while.

The aroma is very hoppy with a grainy malt character. The appearance is light amber gold with a foamy head. The flavor has an astringent bitterness with plenty of malt to back it up. The palate is thick with a peppery finish. Overall it’s good but not great.