Beer – #177 – Invercargill – B.Man Pilsner

Somewhat oddly named b.man is a really smartly presented 330ml bottle of a 5.2% ABV beer (thats about 1.3 standard drinks) with an IBU of 42 making it near the high end for a Pilsner.

Brewed by Invercargill Brewery in the style of a Pilsener and that’s of course in Invercargill, New Zealand

One of this country’s finest aromatic Pilsners and a showcase for New Zealand’s uniquely herbaceous hop varieties, B.Man pours an attractive bright gold beneath a lingering fluffy white head. In both the aroma and palate biscuity sweet malt provides the luscious canvas on which the hops play and their citrusy and tropical (passion) fruit flavours lead into an emphatic, resiny, dry finish. Lip-smackingly good and the perfect match for a hot Thai curry!

Pungent hops on opening. Rich orange golden colour, with a very lively head of fluffy white, and it retains the hoppy aroma.

It’s quite sharp as a drink, dry on the palate, the abundance of hops adds a nice bitterness, You can tell why it’s won awards. You get the citrusy flavour too, all very neatly delivered.

The pdubyah-o-meter says easily 8.25 making it very good but not quite great. I’m glad that I chose to only have the one beer today and that it was this one that came out first. From the colour, to the aroma, the head and the lacing, this was a pretty nice beer to experience. I bet it’s cracking with a Thai curry as suggested.

I don’t however think I’d enjoy this as a session beer though, the flavours are all pretty crammed together in one package, it’s not a drink of many layers, it does what it says it does, very well, but that’s all it does. There isn’t a journey and an unfolding of taste. Again you can tell why it won awards.