Got it this weekend - wow - its excellent! Easily my favorite SA beer - right up there with Boston Lager. Nice floral hop aroma, some pils malt wafting through the nose. Beautiful gold color with appropriate white head. Nice balancing bitterness and slight bready, crackery malt flavor.
I really liked this - its very different from Prima - doesn’t have that bright hop aroma nor the bitterness and is smoother- I’d place it somewhere between Pils Urquell and Prima in terms of bitterness and general hoppiness. Each has their own place, IMO.
I bought a sixer last week and loved it. I caught myself trying to drink all 6 that afternoon. It really is a great beer, too bad it’s a seasonal. I wish they brewed it year round.
keith - I believe you’re thinking of the Golden Pilsner, which was one of my faves as well, but this seems pretty different though I’m going on memory and not true comparison. I actually seem to enjoy this more than I remember enjoying the Golden Pils, if that makes any sense.
Who knows though - I was just out of college back then, and although a beer geek at the time, not nearly the geek I am today.
Yep. You are right. Just dawned on me before I even saw your response and I was coming back here to mention that. I don’t know if they are even the same as while I have seen the Noble Pils I haven’t tried it yet.
The Golden Pils was pretty darn good for, considering it used to be the freshest “imported” pilsner on the shelf back then. And they made a big deal of having “Noble hops”, I believe it was Mittflefruh - which I also believe SA uses for its noble Pils and Imperial Pils.
Just saw the TV commercial for this. I thought that it was really well done. I especially like the map of Germany overlaid with all of the noble hops names / with the family-crest looking things.
Pretty cool. I bet non-brewers even appreciate this kind of stuff!
Really enjoyed this beer. Probably one of the best beers SA makes IMO. They mention that they use all 5 noble hops? I only know of 4 (Tettnanger, Hallertauer Mittelfrueh, Spalter, and Saaz), which one am I missing. Also wondering if anyone knows which hop is giving the slight citrus/tropical fruit notes that I’m picking up. Wasn’t aware of a noble hop giving this flavor?
Hersbrucker is the 5th hop that is used. There are the 4 Noble Hops and ones that are “close”. You can debate if Hersbrucker is a Noble Hop.
Doesn’t say on their site if they are using Hersbruck Hersbrucker or Hallertau Hersbrucker. Region then variety.
FYI, the 4 major hop growing regions are the Hallertau near Ingolstadt, Tettnang near Bodensee (Lake Constance), Spalt southwest of Nuernberg, and Hersbruck northeast of Nuernberg. There are some other smaller hop growing regions near Bitburg in the west, and near the Elbe River in the former East.
