Time to dip again into my stash of beer and writie about one from our hometown craft brewers.
Goose Island Beer Co. has returned a pilsener to its regular lineup with Four Star Pils. The Goose had a Pilsener lager some years ago. They had briefly kept the Baderbräu brand going after the original brewer went out of business in the 1990s. But I had always figured they could not keep lagers in production since their longer ferment times kept their brewery occupied while demand was growing. So admittedly, the return to lagers would be considered an advantage of the Anheuser-Busch InBev buyout, which lets them make the Pils at other AB plants, and gives Goose island access to its own hop farm in Idaho.
Four Star was originally launched in 2015 as Blue Line Pilsener, a brand extension of Green Line Pale Ale, which was originally planned to be draft only. Though the name would suggest it follows a German style, the main hop in this beer is a new varietal called Ekuanot (formerly Equinox), a American aroma hop released only in 2014, which a complex fruity aroma.
My pour shows a bright golden beer color in the glass, brightly filtered, under a meringue type head. The smell shows subtle toasty malts and a bit of counterbalancing hop. This beer’s taste shows that light malt taste, with little sweetness, but a dry note. The hops are spicy and bitter, more of a peppery German noble hop on steroids. so this goes a little beyond the subtle floweriness of a traditional Czech stlye Pilsener. But is a solid European style lager with the expected American exaggeration.
Note: This beer was purchased by me for review purposes.
