B No. 7

Greetings! Today I have the second of four brews By Tree Brewing from Kelowna B.C.!

I am Happy to say: Welcome Pilsner, you are the first Lager in the blog!
officially this brew is called Kelowna Pilsner. Winner of the Silver Medal at the Canadian Brewing Awards in 2007, this Brew is weighing in at a spritely 4.8% ABV!



Pilsner being one of 4/5 styles of Lager. Also it is the most widely brewed and consumed style on Earth! Most mega breweries feature several versions of the pilsner style and...nothing else, haha.

You may get confused at this point since Indian Pale ales, Pale ales, Pilsners can all look virtually the same at times. Also, there are lagers that are black as the night and as heavy as a dark ale. Here is the predominant difference: Lagers are "bottom fermenting" beers, and are brewed in colder temperatures for a longer period of time than most ales.The reason they are called bottom fermenting is, because of the colder temperatures(usually around 6 degrees Celsius compared to temperatures as high at 20 degrees at times for ales), the type of yeast used to ferment the beer does do at the bottom of the fermentation tank. simple!

Whats it lookin' like?: Like a pilsner should! Super Clear, very pale and with a little head of foam. This pilsner is nearly the colour of straw, or even a yummy glass of apple juice. But don't fool yourself when staring down a glass of "pil". When this baby hits your tongue, you will NOT be tasting apples.

Aroma: Some yeast, right away and a little bit of the flowery smell of hopps. Even further down on that ladder of aromas, I smell a faint toasty malt. Having this sit on my desk while I type and smell, I notice that the longer it sits the less yeast you can smell and the more the hopps come through.

Initial Taste/mouthfeel: It is indeed very light. The first thing I notice is that it really feels like i'm drinking water. Not it doesn't taste like water, I must be very clear on this haha; but it does feel as light and ...free and a cool glass of water, it's very refreshing. other tastes and flavours are again mild hops but the malt is more in the drivers seat here.

After Tastes: Since this is such a clean drinking lager there isn't a whole lot to speak of other than the nice simple flavors of the hops, you get a soft bitterness and a faint taste of yeast as it fades from your pallet.


Thoughts and conclusions: I do like a pilsner, and I do like this pilsner. What sets this apart from others I have tried, is the aroma. Though this is a European style pil (meaning it's just water/hops/malt...a touch of yeast. No "adjunct malts" such as rice or wheat or rye for filler), you don't get the little bit of funk attributed to long bouts on the shelf and in a shipping container and UV pollution through those popular green bottles. It doesn't sock you in the face with hopps, it blossoms with them. Also, it really isn't overly bitter which is something I don't really care for in Pilsners either. I'll be havin' this one again.


thanks for readin'!



- The Parched Paige