Thunder Canyon Dry River Pils

Brewed by Thunder Canyon Brewery
Style: Pilsener
Tucson, Arizona USA

Tap @ Brewery. Sweet malt on the nose along with some grains. Gold body with white head. Flavor had a malt backbone but that seams to be the case in AZ anyway wihen a Pils is brewed at a brewpub. Decent refreshment on the palate for a hot muggy day with a monsoon storm rolling into Tucson.

On tap @ TBC - Pours a clear light golden color with a small white head. Faint lacing. Aroma is grain malt and light grassy hops. Flavor is basicly the same with a lightly sweetened dry finish. A decent beer.

Sampled on tap at the brewery
This beer arrives with a half-finger thick, pale, white colored head. The color is quite gold and is not quite perfectly clear. The aroma smells very malt focused for a Pils; grassy grain notes, a touch of malt sweetness and even something that is almost like corn. There is a faint, herbal hop aroma here, but it is somewhat muted.

The flavor has more of a herbal hop character than the aroma suggested and there is a bitterness that contributes a nice bite to the finish. Sweet malt notes and a clean grain character are evident and in fact noticeable enough that this does not quite have the hop focus that a Pils should have. This has a fuller mouthfeel from the more noticeable malt character.

This is not really typical of a Pils in that it is more malty; the sweetness gets in the way of the crisp, dry character that is typical of a German Pils. The malt fullness is somewhat like a Bohemian Pilsner, but it does not have the malt complexity, nor the ample, balancing hop character of that type. Not bad, it just seems to miss the mark a bit.