Voodoo Pilzilla

Brewed by Voodoo Brewing Co.
Style: Zwickel/Keller/Landbier
Meadville, Pennsylvania USA

Aroma has a particular strong, sweet hop glow, with maybe a bit of bubblegummy or appley yeast character. Fresh smelling, at least. Nice hazy tanned gold, with a super lacy white head. Flavor at first, is a little terse. The strong hop flavors mix with a slightly styrofoam-like yeast, but this fades into a flourishing grassy and peppery Euro hop character. Nice bright malts, a bit of adding bread-like yeast complexity and a foamy, effervescent body to carry all this through. The hop bitterness is forward, but well balanced and flavorful. well suited for warm summer evenings.

Hazy tangerine body, fluffy white head that laces all over. Nose is quite hop-driven, lots of musty tangerine and grapefruit, also some bitter grass. Dry flavor is sweeter with lots of orange, also some strong hop bitterness and buttered bread. Somewhat fizzy, surprisingly dry. Enjoyable IPA-lite, but not as drinkable as I had hoped.

Bottle. Pours a clear orange with a nice large head. Good looking. Nice subtle hops in the nose, some grass, a little floral. Flavor is where this becomes confused. Not light and refreshing like a pilsener, not bold like an IPA (to which this bears some resemblance), but a little muddled and too sweet, albeit with a nice hop presence. Strange style, pretty good, but I dunno.

A solid pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a three-finger thick, off-white colored crown of foam. The beer is a rich copper color that shows an almost clear, gold-copper color when held up to the light. The aroma smells of grassy hops, hay-like grain and fresh crushed pale grain. This is solidly balanced between the hop character and the grain; much of this is due to this having aged for a bit. This smells exactly like I would expect from a good, Bohemian version of a Pils (this doesn’t have even a hint of diacetyl though); a touch herbal, a hint of lemon zest and maybe even some nettle notes are noticeable here in the nose as well. The nose isn’t perhaps as big as I was expecting, the age could account for that, but it is spot on with what I would expect for something in the Pils genre.

Pretty dry tasting as it first hits my tongue; the beer picks up a pale malt sweetness though that lingers in the finish. The sweetness is well tempered by an herbal, grassy, almost wild-flower like weed character that comes from the ample hops. There is a nice, lingering bitterness here that at times can provide quite a bit of a bitter bite. I wouldn’t characterize the bitterness as clean as there is lingering, menthol like character that intermingles with the hop bite. While this has a bit more zing than you typical Pils, this is still down-right quaffable; the body wouldn’t be out of place in a traditional example of a Czech Pils (though perhaps a touch on the full side), as this is certainly not light bodied like a German Pils typically is. A touch of butter-scotch like malt character adds a nice dimension to this beer. The malt sweetness at times disappears completely for some sips; the hope character with a firm herbal hand just takes over, but the clean malt character is able to regain its composure during subsequent quaffs of this beer. The malt character can produce, in concert with the hops notes, a herbal-honey like note that lightly accents the flavor.

I am not sure of the age of this, but I got it in November of 2008, but it is still drinking quite nicely; the hop character is still quite vibrant, and there is a nice malt character that is just noticeable so that this beer achieves some balance. I wouldn’t be surprised if this beer is close to peaking (though I wouldn’t necessarily guess that a Pils type beer should be drink any way except as fresh as possible). This is a nice beer that is quite enjoyable.

Bottle. Poured a cloudy orange yellow body with thin head. I found this to be too much alcohol and boozy.

Poured from a 22 oz. bomber a hazy yellow with foamy white head. Aroma of grassy hops and pale malts. Flavor was pale malts with a peppery spice and a combination of bitter and grassy hops with a nice dry finish. Medium bodied with a complex mix of flavors that make a refreshing and easy drinking beer. Nice for grilling a steak or some burgers.

I received this one from Scott in the 666 BIF Thanks this bad boy had been on my wants for a while Bottle poured into a dimple mug produced a big white marshmallow looking head that lasted a while. The body of the brew was a slightly hazy pale straw colored yellow. The aroma is very a fragrant floral hop, grassy with some nice bready yeast thrown in. The flavor is to say the least is hoppy. It starts out bitter then I got some grassiness to the flavor followed by some pepper spice. The mouthfeel is light and crisp plenty of carbonation for your tongue. The after effect in my mouth is towards the dry side. This is a great brew I wish I had a pizza to go along with it but I’ll settle for a nice sunny day instead. It is incredibly drinkable; I already wish I had another. Voodoo has done it again another fine beer in my book

22 oz bottle shared among many, courtesy of swoopjones- a nice pilsner, although this one tasted a bit past its prime- I imagine that fresh, this was quite something- the hop character was def. there, but muted a bit- the sweetness of the malt- which was nice- was a bit too upfront for me, but still- very, very nice.