Seven Bridges Southside Pilsener

Described as a German Pils, but I think it is closer to Bohemian Pils. Pours light gold in color with a bright lingering head. Aroma is distinctly Pilsner. Body is medium to medium full. More robust than a German Pils. There is a decent bitterness that offsets the residual sweetness of the Pilsner. A very good Pilsner. One of my favorites at 7B.

Tap @ brewpub. pours golden, white head. Aroma, light citrus hops. Flavor, just felt a lot hoppier than the average pilsener, borderline IPA. Some floral hops, grassy mouthfeel, some citrus, grapefruit and spices. Meh, quite boring.

Crisp. Herbal hop nose with light breadiness. Anise/mint hop character. Off-dry finish. OK pils.

Medium gold, bright with an off-white head. Some diacetyle is present and has a buttery texture as well as flavors. Not hoppy enough, but is thankfully dry. Basically drinkable and disappointing.

Continuing my journey through Seven Bridge’s flight of beers, next up to bat is the Southside Pilsner. If I were to make a reasoned guess, I would say that they named it the Southside Pilsner because Seven Bridges itself lies right off of Southside Blvd, one of the major roads in Jacksonville. An homage to their home turf, I shall see if it is also a proper homage to the traditional pilsner.
A liquid haystack of gold straw topped with a thin white sheet peers out at me from within her glass confines. Small swirls produce a few marks of lace, but nothing to write home about. Her nose is sweet with hints of wet summer grass, grapefruit, freshly baked bread, and a dash of oily resins. More sweet than crisp, I am intrigued as to if her brew below is just the same. After I take my first quaff, I am immediately struck by her grassy profile which turns just as quickly into a tart lemon pucker. Her mouthfeel is soft and airy and lingers around for no-one. A faintly bitter aftertaste is all that reminds me of the pilsner within; maybe a note of sweet bread. As I move further to completion, lemon and grapefruit rise to the forefront, leaving a tart and unfavorably bitter metallic impression. What little grassy notes I tasted in the beginning have all but vanished. Instead, I leave my Southside Pilsner with a confused impression of sweet bread, tart lemons, and grapefruit esters; intriguing, but not at all what I would expect from a pilsner.
Overall, I was not impressed with the Southside Pilsner. A crossbreed of sorts between lager and pilsner, Southside unfortunately fails at both. Hopefully the rest of her brood will fare better than this one did.

on tap-pours a white head and yellow color. Aroma is grassy, some honey. Taste is light malt-some sweetness and honey, slightly syrupy, secondary grassy hops.

Pours gold with bright white head that stays around with some weak spotty lacing. The aroma brings up sweet maltiness and hints of cereal and some faint floral hops in the nose. The taste is just like the aroma with malty sweetness mixed with cereal notes leaning toward grainy malts. There’s also some floral and spicy hop bitterness. Toward midway and into the finish the taste becomes more grainy with a medium level of floral and spice hop bitterness.

Draft at Florida Brewers Guild Beer Fest 2008. Full rating updated as soon as I am more coherent.