Victory Prima Pils

Brewed by Victory Brewing Company
Style: Pilsener
Downingtown, Pennsylvania USA

Pale yellowy golden color, light cloudiness. profusion of small, precise, pinprick sized, bubbles. Wonderfully flowery aromatic nose, infused with herbs, a little minty, piney and suggestions of citrus. There’s some mild fruitiness, and a pale, almost toasty malt. There’s a hop flower on the label and this indeed is what makes the initial taste impression, tingling and challenging the taste buds, leaving bitter hop notes right across the palate. There’s some sweeter malt, that I struggled to define satisfactorily, but do provide an excellent balance, as they swim just below the more hoppy surface. The sweetness does materialize a little more as the beer warms, a subtle sugary lemon, while mid-palate there’s a tropical fruitiness, maybe pineapple juice, maybe pink grapefruit, but not quite full enough for me to define with too much certainty. The bitterness develops yet more noticeably in a tangy and exquisitely dry finish, lingering well into the aftertaste, while slowly and gradually, the sweeter lemony flavors come back to put out the flames. Very refreshing, exceptionally crisp, deliciously bold and flavorful, a pilsner, for those of us who want a beer to taste what it’s supposed to taste like.

12 oz. bottle. Pours a light straw color with a small diminishing head. Aroma of sourness and some earthy hay mustiness. Some peppery notes with some sweet maltiness up front, and finishes with a hint of bitterness. Not a bad beer overall, and a really good beer for the style.

Draught at The White Horse on Parsons Green (London), pours a clear lightish gold. A good malty palate, only a little grainy and quite floral.

Really great pils...with it’s wonderful spritzy carbonation and rampant beading. Good hop bitterness and floral notes. Light malt sweetness under the whole thing. So very good.

355 ml. Crystal clear, pale golden with a medium sized, lasting head. Aroma is spicy honey, cereal grain, and grass. Flavor is honey on the front, slowly bittering to a grassy, lemon-herb, and very hoppy (for a pilsener) finish. Smooth body is thicker than most pils; maybe almost medium. Has all the same characteristic flavors of an industrial American pilsener, but the smooth body and taste of quality ingredients comes through anyway. This pilsener is to a BMC as a cheeseburger at your local grill is to a McDonalds.

Bottle, dated "Enjoy by Mar 09 ’05." Reviewed in my basement as I watch a rainstorm seep water all around my beer fridge. Thanks to Dorwart for putting this in his fine trade. Y’know, Eric Asimov, wine critic for the NY Times, channels his uncle Isaac’s smarts by reviewing beer once in a while, and his latest article had a thumbs up for this. But I think he missed the mark when he said that pilseners are not complex. This beer is very complex. I popped the cap to a whiff of strong beer that could be a slight skunk, but the odor dissipated. The pour is very pale, more like a macro, with a stiff, foamy "TV Beer" head. The malt taste is very light, probably light as you can get without adding corn. But malty, not sugary. Hops are there, but they are more for tang than bitterness, like a few bits of lemon peel. Finish is just fine, with a happy little hop prickle on your tongue. A well rounded pils tasted at the height of its maturity.

Light golden in color below frothy suspended foam. Grassy aromatic hops in the nose with clean yeast and light malt elements, providing a seemlingly honeyed haystack and raw grain aroma. Maybe the label and other user’s comments fooled me, but I was expecting a powerful amount of hops in this brew, and while the hops were fairly forceful, they weren’t very flavorful or aromatic but more just extremely bitter. The malt seemed to be a bit overly sweet and thin and more importantly, just very boring.

Had this back to back with Troegs Sunshine Pils. While I liked the Troegs better, this was tastier and hoppier. More hops than any pilsener I’ve ever had. Pour was a bubbly gold with a quick thin white head. Aroma of slight hops. Taste of hops and lemon with a crisp dry finish. This is a summer beer all the way!