Victory Harvest Pils

Brewed by Victory Brewing Company
Style: Zwickel/Keller/Landbier
Downingtown, Pennsylvania USA

On tap at Victory: This beer kicks ass. I love really hoppy pilsners. I can never get enough european style hoppiness in my pilsners.. Mt Hood works awesome in this new amped up version. Pours mostly clear with some haze-light golden color and a creamy, frothy pure white head. Aroma has that eastern european hop character- lots of spicy floral aromas with hints of dry earthiness and light grassiness. Flavor is well rounded- initially with lots of hops upfront and then again in the finish, but then in the middle you get lots of pure fresh bready pils malt for balance. FInishes mostly light and dry with a powerful bitterness for a pilsner. I loved this beer.

On tap at Grey Lodge. Light golden color with white head. Citrusy, floral hop aroma with similar aroma to Prima Pils, only better. Taste is pretty damn good - Smooth, floral hop taste that is nicely balanced with great pils malt. Truly unique - I felt like I could keep drinking this all day. Refreshing taste that it the best Pilsener around by a long shot.

This offering ranks right up there with the best Pils I’ve tasted in a long while. It beats the Sly Fox Charles Bridge I just tasted a week or so ago. But it doesn’t quite stack up to DFH’s Prescription Pils. But this is damn good. This beer is crisp, refreshing, hoppy and satisfying. It pours a clear and transparent golden color with a generous white head. The aroma is very crisp and dry, with notes of earth, flowers and bread. The body is just perfect for a pils-style; not too heavy but certainly not light at all. It’s just right for that perfect session of drinking with friends amoung a game of pool or poker. The flavors and body are very drinkable, with notes of bread, yeast, earth, flowery hops and light toast. The balance is impeccable and enjoyable. This is one damn fine pils!

Another very good pils from Victory. This one pours slightly hazy dark straw colored, with a 2-finger frothy white head. The aroma provided bready malt, some hops, and grassy citrus. The flavor had an initial dry hop pop, followed up by some bready honey malt and piney citrus elements. Complex, crisp, and smooth, this one is a great complement to the Prima pils.

Poured a hazy golden color with a medium sized, white head that left light lacing on the glass. Aroma of citrus, piney hops, doughy malt, and lemongrass. Taste of more dough, citrus, and piney hops, with a bitter grapefruit finish. Another amazing Victory pils!

Tap at Barcade. Very, very pale golden beer with a fluffy white head. Incredible fresh hop nose with lots of flowery notes, zesty earthiness and a bright noble spiciness that really needs to be smelled to be believed. Saaz are usually underutilized, but here they’re bright and expressive. Flavour is also all juicy/spicy noble hops. Soft minerally character accents this nice massive spiciness. Malts are barely there, just showing a kiss of breadiness and softness of palate that balances the crisp hops. Awesome pils.

Draught at Blue Dog Chalfont. Clear shiny golden body with a pillowy white head. Fresh pils malt nose with honeydew and bright floral hop tones. Crisp, semi-dry hoppy flavor with good pils malt backing. Spicy, dry finish, but malt quality lingers through. A very nicely balanced and well-dialed-in keller pils. Very quaffable and cravable.

Wow. A plain old beer can’t get any better than this. Remembering that a pilsner is just a close cousin to a lager, and that Budvar, the long ago home of Mr. Busch and thus the home of Budweiser is in the Czech Republic, this beer is amazing. Appearance is a perfect 5. An intense, almost luminescent golden beer with a huge, firm foamy head that laces the entire glass. Hoppy nose. Taste of sweet lightly roasted malt, classic hoppy bitterness, with an intensity and a spicy bite that must come from the freshness of the hops, and an herbal / grassy note in the background. Mouthfeel is just average, as you would expect from a pils or a lager. I added an extra point to the overall rating to reflect what a marvelous accomplishment it is to get this much into a simple beer. I mean, anyone can make a complex dark Belgian, but this is the simple beer that would be served at barbeques in heaven.