Beer – #459 – Stewart Brewing – Top of the Hops

The name appealed to me, as did the ingredients list, so I got me a beer from Stewart Brewing called Top of the Hops.

New to me then, Stewart Brewing Company, who do their brew at Tuatara Brewing Company this one is in the Style of Pilsener, and they are in Hiwinui, Manawatu, New Zealand.

6.2% ABV, 34 IBU things, 186 calories a serve, and 2.3 standard drink units in this bottle that is 500ml (16fl Oz give or take)

Man has a beer !

This lively pilsner is brewed using New Zealand’s finest hop stars – Nelson Sauvin, Cascade and Wakatu.

Labelled by the crowds as ‘Bittersweet’, the German style bitterness is evenly balanced by the sweetness of the pilsner malt.

It’s fast being recognised as a chart topping brew and why we call it our Top of the Hops.

The Nelson Sauvin appeals to me too,

lovely punchy aroma on opening. Really pale pour, with a lovely full carbonation, and delivers a nice firm fluffy head.

Well hopped. Very hopped indeed. But with a lot of malt sweetness to help that along at the start.

Has that expected rough edge that you’d like from a Pilsner, so it’s interesting and rewarding.

But not quite enough “pilsnery” would be the complaint, I’d like to have more.

Sits well in the glass, easy drinking, but because of the amount of malt muting everything this could be, unkindly, described perhaps as lacking in flavour.

A bit too polite. Too Malty. It’s very nice and I’m smiling because Pilsner is a style that I enjoy more than I ought.

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 8 a of its things from the thing. It’s very good, it’s easy quaffing, quenching and not distracting or edgy. Which is also the problem as I might like a little more hop roughness at the margins.

The double dip review

Am I enjoying it? I am, but I’d like to enjoy it more.
Would I have another? I wouldn’t mind if I did
Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? It’s a beer that could go a few times around the block and so yes I would.

I was listening to some music, of course, this by the Indie band “War on Drugs” this is “under the Pressure” off an album “Lost in the Dream”

At different times I thought glimpses of Bob Dylan vocal tones, but then I know as much as music as I do beer.

PILSENER

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