Sprecher Pale Lager

Formerly brewed at Sprecher Brewing Company
Style: Bohemian Pilsener
Glendale, Wisconsin USA

I absolutely love this lager. It's beauty lies in its subtleties, which can easily be missed by those looking for the maltiest or hoppiest beer. A definite yeasty flavor permeates the solid malt body and little bitterness can be found. A session lager of the highest order.

Sprecher Pale Lager pours to a beautiful, bright, pale golden color with a creamy white head, and a lively amount of carbonation. The nose is just bursting with zesty/grassy Saaz hop aroma with a nice back drop of pale malt aroma. The palate is crisp and delicious, lots of good pale malt flavors and a lean, smooth, soft body. This beer finishes with light touches of pale malt flavor up front, and ends with a wondeful, zesty, grassy, hop bite that lingers. WOW! This is a fantastic pilsner, one of the best domestic versions I have ever tasted. It would stand shoulder to shoulder with any Czech or German example. This is a perfect beer to have as an aperitif, and goes well with a number of dishes. Try this with a chicken spanferkel dinner, which consists of spit roasted chicken, German potato salad, saurkraut, and rye bread and butter.

A very pleasant and smooth lager with sufficient malt and not over-hopped.

(bottle): Clear orange-yellow body with medium off-white head. Aroma is sharp grassy, then some malts -- caramle mostly. Taste starts with a pleasant sweetness that complements the strong but not overwhelming grassy bitterness that dominates this beer. Some floral flavor shows up as the beer warms. Medium body, a bit fuller than I'd expected.

Amber colored. Nice malty aroma, Saaz hops are prevalent. Has a light body (may have been called ’less filling’ a few years back). The amber by Sprecher is much more flavorful.

Bottle - thanks to badgerben for the trade. Pours slightly hazy amber with a moderate white head that leaves some lacing. Aroma is sweet malts and lots of floral hoppiness. Flavor is much the same as the aroma and ends with a nice subtle bitterness. This is richer than a typical pilsner and benefits from some warming where many pilsners don’t. Light to medium body and gently creamy carbonation.

A cross between a bohemian pils and a helles lager. Golden color with a white fluffy head. Seems to lack hops for a pils and backbone malt for solid lager. Drinkable, but nothing extraordinary.

A true Bohemian Pils this is not despite the commercial description. What it is is a damn fine American lawnmower lager. Pours a really nice golden with a white head of fine bubbles. Definite emphasis on malt and slightly sweet rounded out by a kiss of Saaz (the Schlitz reference is intentional, though this is a much cleaner beer with no apparent adjunct character). One of those brews that seems to jump down your throat even when served at proper Pilsener temperature.