Beer – #329 – Black Dog – Bite Hopped Pilsner

Black Dog beer, I’ve only had out on my travels in pubs from taps. So this is a new experience. Pilsner too, a style with which I have a love/hate thing with, at least in my head.

This is a 500ml bottle (16 fl oz) of a 5.5% ABV beer, which is 2.17 drinks, could be about 230 calories worth in the bottle, not a serve. I may have this all wrong.

Brewed by Black Dog Brewing Company This of course in the style of a Pilsener and they are in Wellington, New Zealand, and I will get to visit them one day.

ah ha! the selfie

This is a hoppy Pilsner done in the Kiwi style. This is our representation of a style that New Zealand brewers are really crafting into something unique, a hoppy lager style beer that showcases our country’s hops. Bite features Motueka and Nelson Sauvin hops, both of which are making a big name for themselves around the world. Kiwi hop growers can’t produce enough of these varieties so you better get a glass of this one while you can!

All I got on opening was yeast, but that’s normal, right ?

Mint pour of a crisp yellow orange beer with a lovely foamy head and loadsa carbonation going all on in the glass. Nice.

Still only a yeast aroma, I’m not so bothered by this though. I am looking forward to the first sup.

This isn’t as earthy as I lead myself to believe this might be, and it’s actually somewhat muted.

It’s also not that hopped in the way that you might think that hops = bitterness , or add flavours like grass or pine or cats urine, or whatever.

This is a pretty clean and crisp beer, it’s nothing edgy or spectacular, or difficult or challenging, or something you drink to feel different, it’s just a good beer done well.

There is nothing at all stand-out though, and this is where this, for me, becomes a good domestic beer, an everyman beer. Which isn’t bad it’s just a commercial beer, and being in the money is important for the side projects.

It’s very quaffable and the pdubyah-o-meter rates this as a 6 on the scale of things, which is only at the average level of beer, for me. This however isn’t the whole of it, because of the the arbitrary 3 Question Quiz

Am I enjoying it? Yes, yes I am
Would I have another? Yes, yes I would
Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? I think you could sit and have a share session with a few of these as it’s low impact and high enjoyment.

So, I’d like another, yes I would, but if only we were having a Sunday afternoon half-back/quarterback session, but then you could insert commercial beer X in that slot and get a similar result.

If I was grading this for report it could be B- must try harder!

Musically we moved (I say we, MrsPdubyah insisted something more upbeat) to George Michael and his Symphonica Album , who doesn’t like swing!

As an aside on Untappd I got another ‘badge’ Crisp as Day (Level 2) – Light and crisp, a Pilsner is all you need to make your day great. Though, perhaps another one would make it even better. That’s 10 different Pilsners. No one can claim I like all the same beers.

PILSENER

While the definition of “pilsner” is open to much debate in the beer community, it generally refers to pale, hoppy lagers, ranging from 28IBUs and up.