In the world history of beer, pilsners are relatively recent. Around 1842, eons before marketers invented “drinkability,” Czech brewers in Bohemia created pilsner, a light beer that didn’t taste like spongewater. The primary source of the innovation was the use of bottom-fermenting yeasts, which yielded a livelier, more consistent beer than the traditional top-fermented brews. Today, the best pilsners are still found in continental Europe, partly because of demand and partly because it’s home to the style’s signature Saaz hop, Pilsen’s soft water and crackery, paler malt. German and Bavarian styles tend to emphasize bitterness and spicy hop flavor. But stateside, craft brewers borrow freely from both approaches and put a more personal flare — typically more hops — on the style. United States craft brewers have refused to let mass-produced, adjunct-laden, flavorless-at-best light lagers be the standard. Today, Peaks & Pints salutes pilsners brewed along the West Coast with our Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Pilsners.
Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Pilsners
Otherlands Haladuda Special
4.4% ABV
Dedicated to the family matriarch, Babcia, and all the Haładuda ladies, this light yet characterful pilsner includes Polish and Czech hops, Czech malt, and a decoction mash. It’s deeply inspired by the Lojko Polish lager from Notch Brewing in Salem, Massachusetts, as well as Wayfinder’s Czech-style pilsner, CZAF, in Portland. Expect malt aroma and flavor with a slight yeastiness, a little sweetness, and a noble and hoppiness.
Occidental Northwest Pilsner
5% ABV
Occidental Brewing Co. was founded in 2011 by Ben and Dan Engler with the goal of making well-balanced continental-style beers in the land of IPAs: Portland, Oregon. Occidental collaborated with E9 Brewing on this latest installment of their Northwest Pilsner Series, following in the bootsteps of Baerlic Brewing, Heater Allen, Buoy Beer, Foreland, Level, Von Ebert, Kulshan Brewing, and others. This brightly golden, slightly unfiltered Northwest Pilsner is brewed with Cashmere and Rakau hops for voluptuous hop flavors of lemon/lime, floral, earthy, light tropical fruits, stone fruits, and pine with a lovely backend bitterness.
Russian River STS Pils
5.3% ABV
Modern brewing techniques such as open-top fermentation and old-world traditions create the distinct qualities in Russian River Brewing‘s STS Pils. It’s a classic German-style pilsner dry brewed with a distinct water profile and hopped with a small number of European hops. This hop-forward pilsner has a firm malt foundation, strong lager yeast characteristic, and a dry, crisp minerality, and bitter finish.
pFriem Pilsner
4.9% ABV
Since its 2012 founding in Hood River, Oregon, pFriem Family Brewers has become one of the most consistently decorated breweries in the United States. Best known for its range of consistently excellent lagers — including its flagship pFriem Pilsner — what’s driven the success is a potent combination of meticulous brewing and reverence for traditional European styles. Their Pilsner offers pastoral aromas of flowers and meadow grains combined nicely with a typical maltiness to provide what we could only describe as a “pilsner” scent. The taste is the best part, though, with a deep dryness at the back of the mouth and the faint minerality that’s so crucial to a pilsner. pFriem’s Pilsner goes down easy as a breeze off the Columbia River.
Heater Allen Pils
5% ABV
Beer is a family business for Heater Allen, a lager brewery that opened McMinnville, Oregon, in 2007. “Heater” is Rick’s wife Jan’s maiden name, and “Allen” is his last name. He figures that you should always give your wife first billing. While Rick has little German heritage on his side of the family, most of Jan’s family is of German descent. Their daughter, Lisa, who works for the brewery, is a true Heater Allen. In 2009, Lisa left a career in the wine industry to join her dad’s two-man crew. Since Lisa came on the scene, Heater Allen has grown from a six-barrel to a 15-barrel brewhouse. In November 2022, Lisa and her partner, Kevin Davey, the founding brewmaster at Wayfinder Beer, purchased a majority share of Heater Allen from Rick and in March 2023 announced the launch of their own brand, Gold Dot Beer. Lisa and Kevin continue to make Heater Allen beers. Their pilsner is their take of the renowned Bohemian-style pale lager that you might find in Bavaria or the Czech Republic. Heater Allen’s version is a little more golden, rounder, and a little more malt driven than many other versions. The beer possesses strong hop character that is balanced by its rich, round, malty palate.
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