I have a confession to make. I love good pilsners. I like them a lot. Unfortunately, they are one of the most difficult beers to craft due to the nature of the yeast to make lagers – especially small batch lagers. Someone shared with me a great example of Pilsner Urquell, and in my personal experiences with it, I have to agree. In a paraphrase, it is one of the best beers when it is fresh and it is one of the worst beers when it’s not stored properly.
Hood River, OR brewer Full Sail cycles 3 of their 4 seasonal beers throughout the year as “LTD” or Limited Edition. The number signifies their current recipe in the LTD cycle. Full Sail is a good craft brewer. On Beer Advocate, their lowest public rated beer currently is a B-. When the public says their worst is a bit above average, that’s quite a statement to their consistency.
LTD 03 is in a baby blue label with a featured summary of what it is, and it says “Well looky here, a crisp new pilsner style Limited Edition Lager all ready to rock your tastebuds’ little world.” with a contrasting red “03″. It’s hard to miss this in the stores.
The Impression: It’s floral. It’s hoppy. It’s an assassin of flavor, meaning it snuck up and then assaulted my mouth with flavor. It’s a subtle opening and a pleasant crisp layered with complexity.
6 out of 8 completely rocked tastebuds. If you don’t care for Pilsner style beer or you don’t really have an acquired pallet for beer, I wouldn’t recommend this. If you do have an acquired pallet and/or like Pilsners and haven’t tried this, give it a shot when you see it. Give it a try on a hot summer day.
I haven’t had a Full Sail anything since their ale – a former favorite – started giving me smokin’ headaches on a regular basis back in the late 90s. I blame my own goofy chemistry, BTW, not FS. Maybe it’s time to try again…?
You might luck out with this one, because hardly any of the ingredients will be the same.
Or maybe all the smokin’ headaches were from enjoying it too much? That IS a common side effect when people drink a lot.
Full Sail is pretty much my go-to micro-brewer these days. None of their beers blow me away, but they are all good, and they are almost always the cheapest 6-pack at Fred Meyers.