Sweet Sixteen Matches - Helles and Pils

We started this round on a cold night, with all the happy beers lined up outside waiting for the games. The best thing about winter - outside of skiing - is that your balcony is magically transformed into a giant drink refrigerator for at least 5 months per year. We took fuuuuull advantage of this during the beer tournament.

We decided to follow wine tasting procedure and move from lighter to stronger, so we began with two classic Bavarian helles, Löwenbräu Original and Tegernseer Hell.  You'll recall from the first round matches that Löwenbräu shocked us by winning a blind tasting against Munich favorite Augustiner. (Theories abound as to why:  the difference between keg and bottle?  The Augustiner beer gardens somehow bring additional magic to the maß?  Who knows.)  Tegernseer, however, predictably demolished the competition, though we did discover the surprisngly good cheap beer (39 cents per half liter!) Hubauer Urhell.

We had around 9 people voting most of the night. As expected, the Tegernseer was really much lighter and smoother than the Löwenbräu... but that ironically was it's downfall here.  We prefered the more complex Löwenbräu to the silky smooth Tegernseer.  Other were surprised to find that they preferred the Löwenbräu too -- again a prejudice shattered. The Tegernseer was crisp and refreshing, but perhaps a little too light for a winter evening.  However, it did reinforce the experience of seeing people bringing cases of Tegernseer to the Isar river, leaving it in the water to cool, and grilling wursts.  It's a great summer beer, but lost 6 to 3 with the temperature hovering around 0 degrees.

Next up were Hacker-Pschorr's Münchener Kellerbier (beer made the way they made it in 1490) and Andechs' wonderfully caramelly but light Bergbock Hell. 

As in the prior round, the Andechs' Bergbock Hell trounced the competition (basically unanimous).  At this point, it probably has the most votes and widest margin of victory of any beer in the tournament.  It just has a great mix of sweet maltiness, a balance of hoppy bitterness, and the extra alcohol just works.  Ironically, this surprised our Bavarian tasters too because they always knew they liked Andechs, but by default the regular Helles.  Many think they now prefer the Bergbock Hell!

So those two matches leave use with a Helles Regional Final between Löwenbräu Original and Andechs Bergbock Hell.

Moving down to the Pils/Export region, we start off with Paulaner Premium Pils vs Hasseröder Premium Pils. Neither prior round match was particularly close, with Paulaner plowing through the Beck's and Hasseröder clearly beating down the bitter beers with its malty take on the pilsner tradition.  We had been really surprised by the Paulaner Pils, enjoying its flavor that was like a Pils for Bavarian palates. (You could argue that it is halfway to being a Munich Helles because it is a little sweeter and less hoppy, but it does use "noble" hops like a pils should.)

When the Paulaner Pils then went against the Hasseröder, a similar thing happened as with Tegernseer.  Despite the advantage of being like a smooth helles, the Paulaner goes home while Hasseröder was voted through to the next round.  The tasters thought Hasseröder had a better overall blend with that extra hoppiness; in this case, the crowd wanted a little more bite to the beer. The voting was pretty close though (5 to 4).  On this evening, we're seeing some tasters consistently wanting a more "forward" beer that is on equal footing with any food on the table, and other tasters consistently looking for the biergarden/refreshing/ahhhh type beer.  This evening, the testers wanting complexity had the majority.

And finally, we had Krombacher Pils vs Augustiner Edelstoff Exportbier. Krombacher was fresh off a victory in the Power Pils Round, while Augustiner beat out Veltins and the other two Munich exportbiers to move on to this matchup.  Krombacher is a prototypical pils:  light golden color, crisp taste with noticable hoppiness.  The Augustiner Exportbier is more like a helles but with significantly more hoppiness than their regular Helles.  Think of it as coming to a similar place as the Paulaner Pils (sweeter/less hoppy than a pils, more hoppy than a helles) but from the other direction.  That was the difference:  the hops balanced with a more malty complexion gave the game to Augustiner Exportbier.  It was a solid victory, with 2/3 choosing the Augustiner.

This night leaves us with happy memories (and headaches the next morning), as well as two regional final matchups:

Helles Region - Andechs Bergbock Hell vs Löwenbräu Original
Pils/Export Region - Hasseröder Premium Pils vs Augustiner Edelstoff Export

March Madness

As the NCAA tournament has moved beyond its first rounds, so has the Schnitzelbahn German Beer Tournament.

After many tastings and experiments with food and beer, we find ourselves with 16 teams beers remaining (sorry, my mind is overcome with basketball...Go Heels!). We've had a lot of winners so far, and I guess Herr J and I have been the biggest winners of all, getting to try so many new beers and say hello again to our old favorites.

At this point, the bracket looks like this (click to enlarge):

In our four "regions"we have remaining beers from 10 breweries:
Hacker-Pschorr
2x Löwenbräu
2x Andechs
Tegernseer
Hasseröder
Krombacher
Augustiner
Hofbräu
2x Erdinger
and a record FOUR entries from Paulaner!!!

8 of the 10 are in or around Munich, though Tegernsee and Andechs are special places meriting their own mention!

This is where we bring our friends into the fun...Most of our first round matches pitted similar beer types against each other. In the later rounds, however, personal preference really becomes the deciding factor. So we thought we'd solicit the opinions of our trusted friends and get more votes...well, and any excuse to have a party....

We have some favorites, of course, but there's not a beer in the Sweet Sixteen that we wouldn't gladly order. And since the field is dominated by Bavarian beers, it would be pretty easy for us to order one fresh out of the tap!

The Last of the First Round Matches

And here we are, finally, after many nights of tasting beers. We'll finish up with a last round of four Pilsners.

First up, we have Hasseröder Premium Pils and Bitburger Premium Pils. Hasseröder has been brewing beer since 1872, but was a relatively small and not widely-known brewery until the 1990 German reunification. It had been a highly successful regional beer, but was not often available outside of the Magdeburg district (now part of Sachsen-Anhalt) of the DDR. However, it's been one of the big success stories after reunification - becoming one of the top three consumed pils nationwide, and one of the favorite beers in the former DDR states.  They invested heavily in technological improvements and marketing, ultimately became part of InBev and was chosen as the brand used for beer ads during the German World Cup matches in South Africa. Though Budweiser through InBev owns the rights to the beer advertising in the World Cup, the Budvar-Budweiser dispute prohibited them from using the Budweiser name. Instead, they chose Hasseröder, which generally focuses its marketing efforts on sporting teams and events.

Bitburger is one we see often on commercials, especially during televised sports. Everyone knows their slogan "Bitte ein Bit" ("Ask for a Bit" or "A Bit, Please")...their commercials are everywhere! Bitburg is located in the Eifel mountain area of Rhineland-Palatinate, near the Luxembourg border. Though pretty much every Geman brewery uses only the best ingredients, Bitbuger claims that its water source (drawn from the Bitburg Triassic Trough) gives it a superior, crisp Pilsner taste. Whether or not the water filtered through million-year old shell and sandstone makes a better beer or not, Bitburger is doing something right and is one of the top 3 selling beers across Germany.

In our contest, we preferred the Hasseröder, however. The Bit lived up to its word association and was a bit bitter compared to the crisp Hasseröder.  And in addition to a preferable taste, the Hasseröder had a really pleasing, crisp fizziness to it.  

Then we have Wernesgrüner's "Legendary Pils" vs König Pilsener, Germany's "King of Beer." Wernesgrüner has been brewing beer since 1436, which they make sure to point out was a good 50 years "before Columbus discovered America."  It's available these days in the US and Canada, and you'll definitely find it in any US Aldi that sells beer. (American friends, if you have an Aldi in your town, give it a visit!) Wernesgrüner has a long tradition of export to North America, as it was served on Hapag-Lloyd's famous Hamburg-New York cruise line in the early 1900s and was also often taken to other countries as a gift by German travellers. Today, it's owned by the Bitburger Group, and is pitched as a brewery combining hundreds of years of experience with modern technology to produce a Legendary beer.

The König Pilsener today is also part of the Bitburger Group. In addition to the usual sports marketing, they use German celebrities Til Schweiger and Boris Becker (seriously, he and his ladies are always in the tabloids and social pages!!) in promotions. König Pilsener has been around since 1825, when Herr König began brewing his beer. The brewery focuses on Pils today, though also produces an Altbier and several other beer drinks (radler, malz, alcohol-free, etc). They've been making Pils since before it was popular, so why change? This one comes from Duisburg, an inland port and major steel producing area near Düsseldorf. 

Both of these beers were considerably lighter tasting than the other two, but we picked the Wernesgrüner to be the Bitburger Group's representative in the next round.  

 

Though it's one of the biggest brewery groups in Germany, Bitburger's three pils could not stand up to InBev's Hasseröder.  Most likely it's our Bavarian-trained palates...we don't favor the super hoppy beers. It was, of course, a Pils, but we really enjoyed that they added some maltiness to balance out the hops. A really great pilsner beer.

 

Veltins Pilsner and the Export Beers

As we didn't have enough German Pilsners available in my Munich supermarket, we included three Exportbier in this bracket. (You can find some other pilsners if you go to a beer store, and you can find a few Czech pilsners in my market, but we didn't have 16 German Pilsners in my store).

First, what is an Exportbier?

It's exactly as it sounds, but what was considered an Export was anything that was exported to another city. The realities of transportation prior to engines and refrigerating meant that the beer had to be brewed slightly differently to survive the journey. An exportbier is still a lager (bottom-fermented, etc), but it is brewed with a higher original wort (12-14% gravity) than a Pils or Helles (typically 11-12% gravity). This also results in a beer with a slightly higher alcohol content (5% vs the usual 3.5-4%)). Often the beer was diluted with water once it reached its destination. Thanks to the higher alcohol content, the beer had both a longer shelf life and lower transportation costs.

For many years (until the 1970s), Exportbier was one of the most popular varieties in Germany, when it was overtaken by the Pils. It's important to note that there are two different types of German Exportbier, as well as a more rare Vienna-style Export:

1) Dortmunder Exportbier is the most well-known - It's a pale lager brewed in the Dortmund area since the mid-1800's. Dortmunder Exportbier became the favorite of the region's industrial workers, as the regions coal and steelworkers needed a good brew to drink. Though it still has a hoppy taste, it has a strong malty and slightly sweeter taste, too.

2) Munich Exportbier - This is what we're trying today. The Munich style typically is darker than a Dortmunder, due to darker malt and higher temperatures in the kiln. This also gives it a slightly caramel flavor. Not surprisingly, the Munich Exportbier is less strongly hopped than the Dortmunder.

So, onto the beers....

In this bracket, we also have our last Pilsner, Veltins Pilsener. Recall that Veltins, the 7th largest brewer, is the beer of FC Schalke and runs a 5km beer pipeline from the brewery to the taps at the arena. Veltin's primary brews a pilsner style beer, though they do also sell light, alcohol free, radler (beer/lemon soda mix), alcoholfree malt, and the V+ range of flavored beers as is very trendy today. Veltins brewery began in 1824, brewing the usual beer types. In 1926, it decided to focus only on the pilsner style of beer.

Here, Veltins goes up against Hacker-Pschorr's Münchener Gold Export Bier.  The Münchener Gold was first brewed in the late 1800s, and then was brought back in 2005.

While the Veltins is an excellent Pils, we preferred the maltiness of the export beer. Just a matter of personal preference...

In the next round, we get a fairer competition, as it's between two Munich Export Beers: Augustiner Edelstoff Exportbier and Tegernsee's Max I. Joseph Jubiliäms Export. ("Edel" means "noble", meaning that this beer uses the "noble ingredients." You often will hear of "noble hops" in Bavaria).

This beer from the Tegernseer brewery was brewed in 2006 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Kingdom of Bavaria by Max(imilian) I. Joseph. King Max, as he was known, also purchased the Tegernsee monastery and brewery from its baron owner in 1817, a decade or so after the secularization of Bavaria. Under his ownership, Tegernsee became a cultural and economic center. Hence the beer to honor King Max and Bavaria.

The Augustiner was a relatively light colored exportbeer. This was almost a tie - Augustiner had slightly more body (due to a fizzier feeling in the mouth). The Tegernsee was a bit sweeter, and we didn't love the feeling of its carbonation.

Then we have Augustiner vs Hacker-Pschorr to decide who goes on to the Sweet Sixteen. Again, the Augustiner had what we call "more body." It just felt like a more solid beer and had a very pleasant level of carbonation. Also, it had the great hint of malty taste, but was not too sweet - it was just a great balance between maltiness and hoppiness. The Hacker-Pschorr, on the other hand, tasted flat and sweet compared to the Augustiner.

German Beer Tournament - One Last Helles Round

For the last of the Helles first rounds, we have Hofbräu Original vs Löwenbräu Original and Chiemseer Hell vs Augustiner Lagerbier Hell.

We love Augustiner, especially at the beer gartens and restaurants. Augustiner restaurants are not as numerous as Paulaner and some of the other breweries, but you can always count on them having top quality food. So, we had high expectations of Augustiner in this tournament.

Augustiner has been brewed in Munich since 1328, first brewed by the Augustinian monks, and now privately. Augustiner is notorious for putting quality above all else. Legend has it that when Munich's unusually hot summer led to the breweries running out of beer, Augustiner refused to brew extra beer through a shortened process (as did most other breweries) because they would not trade quality and process in order to sell more beer. Unfortunately, this also means Augustiner is somewhat difficult to find in the US. It is availalble in some places, but in limited quantities. In Texas, due to a dispute over labelling with the TABC, Augustiner decided that selling beer in TX was not worth changing anything.

Chiemseer was a beer we didn't know before. It looks and sounds a bit like Tegernseer, which is one of the top beers in the area. Unfortunately their website is down, so there isn't much info available.

While it would have been a tough climb for any beer opposing Augustiner, this was no contest. It's possible we got a bad bottle, but this beer just was not good. It tasted bitter - not a hoppy bitterness, but a bitterness with a slight chemical taste. So far, it's the one beer we've tasted that we can say we did not enjoy. I guess to be fair, we should try another one sometime, but we have so many other beers to taste that this will have to wait.

Then we have two of the most internationally known Munich beers - Hofbräu and Löwenbräu. Hofbräu, of course, is known more for the Hofbräuhaus and its Oktoberfest tent. Löwenbräu has brand recoginition as it shares the same name as a bad American beer.

According to its history, Hofbräu was founded in 1589 by Duke Wilhelm V because he was tired of the cost of importing beer and he did not like any of the Munich beers brewed at the time. Hard to imagine, as Augustiner and Weihenstephaner were around....but that's the official story.  

Though the Löwenbräu name is not found on documents before the 1740's, there are references to a brewery going back to the late 14th century. It was one of the early pioneers among German beers in pushing for strong presence in the English-speaking markets abroad. I wasn't a beer drinker in the 70s and 80s, but supposedly it was very popular in the US. However, the reputation of American Löwenbräu I have always known was not as good beer...From the 70s until 2002, Miller brewed Löwenbräu under a licensing agreement and they included corn in the recipe, and I suspect different hops. However, today the Löwenbräu you'll find in the US is exported from Germany. After much consolidation in the beer industry, Löwenbräu is now the Spaten-Franziskaner-Löwenbräu Group, and part of InBev.

We weren't really sure which of these two we would prefer. I have to admit we both were a little prejudiced against both beers. Of course, they're pretty good beers in an absolute world, but in the world of Munich that includes Augustiner, Tegernseer, and wonderful weißbiers, they would not be our first choice. I actually put them in a first round match together in order to give them both an equal chance to advance.

These are two relatively similar beers, and surprisingly good. We found the Löwenbräu to have a crisper taste and the Hofbräu a little more hoppy, thus sent the Löwenbräu to the next round against Augustiner.

This is where the real shocker of the tournament comes...and proof that this is a blind tasting!  Based on our beer garden experiences, there are few things better than sitting under the Augustinerkeller's chesnut trees in summer, drinking a cool helles. While the food and atmosphere at the Löwenbräukeller's little beer garden are among our favorites (their schnitzel is full of buttery goodness!), the beer is not great.
When we tasted the two together, it was very difficult to pick a winner. But the Löwenbräu was just a tiny bit tastier and it took out one of the tournament favorites!

It makes me wonder....does Augustiner put their best beer in kegs for the beer gardens and Löwenbräu puts their best beer in bottles for sale???? Either way, Augustiner is still a great beer - one of my favorites here - and you really can't go wrong going to an Augustiner restaurant or beer garden.

So it will be Löwenbrau vs Tegernseer in the contest to move on to the Elite Eight. I'm looking forward to that tasting!

The Power Pils Round

Now that we've eased into the Pils with some Beck's and Bavarian Pils, we dive into Germany's big players in the Pils market.

We call this the Power Pils round, as it contains German's top 2 producers and

From the March Madness comparison, Warsteiner and Krombacher are UConn and Syracuse

Warsteiner is enjoyed in over 60 countries and is Germany's largest beer exporter. Far more, however, is drunk in Germany - it's considered one of the top Pilsners. It's not as old as some of the Bavarian breweries, but it's been around long enough (250 years) to be considered a real German player. Interestingly, Warsteiner is an investor in König Lüdwig. Beer is almost a strategic industry in Germany, and the decline in beer consumption has been major news for a few years. According to its annual report, Warsteiner was able to slightly increase its domestic sales last year despite a 2.4% overall decline in the German beer market. Not bad! Among their new marketing efforts is using the Klitschko brothers (both are World Heavyweight Champions and Wladimir is Hayden Pannettiere's boyfriend) to promote their alcohol-free beer to athletes and health-conscious beer lovers. For many tourists, this was their first German beer - I'll let Herr J tell his story later, but I remember this was the beer served in our hostel in Marbella on my first trip abroad!

With all the different measurements (by brand, by brewery, by brewery holding company, etc), it's not easy to say which are the largest breweries in Germany. Warsteiner, Krombacher, and Radeberger are easily in the top 10. The Radeberger Group is often named the largest German brewery group due to its ownership of so many German breweries. It's likely a very close race between Radeberger's and InBev's production in Germany.

Radeberger was founded in 1872 in Radeberg (near Dresden) and claims to be "the first brewery in Germany to brew beer in the traditional Pilsner manner." It also was designated by the Royal Court of Saxony as their beer provider. So perhaps Radeberge was the original German pilsner...it's definitely one of the most popular. You can see exactly how popular their pilsner is from the fact that the Binding Group renamed its entire holding company The Radeberger Group after it purchased Radeberger.

However, the Jever brand is also part The Radeberger Group. Similar to Beck's they use green glass (not as protective as the brown used by most) and 0.33mL bottles. The Jever brewery was founded in the mid-1800s and remained a relatively small brewery. It was hard hit by both wars - in the first war losing its leader on the front and by shortages of hops and barley; after the second, fuel shortages limited them to selling only for self-pickup and the head going from farm to farm trying to buy or barter for barley. But the brewery was able to stay in operation and grow into a modern brewery well-known for its pilsner and exportbiers. The formal name "Friesisches Brauhaus zu Jever" alludes to its location in the city of Jever and its pride in the region Friesland. Friesland is on the North Sea coast, including parts of both Germany and the Netherlands that were settled since the first century. It's also known for its natural beauty, fresh air, and beaches - something you'll see reflected when you open the Jever site to find beaches and seagull sounds! Interestingly, Jever has aligned itself with Harley-Davidson, sponsoring HarleyDay in Hamburg and offering custom Jever Harleys and dune buggies. I'm pretty amused that their alcohol-free version is called "Jever Fun."

And then we have Krombacher, which was founded in 1803 in Krombach (between Frankfurt and Würzburg). They initially brewed only traditional lagers, but began making a pils in 1890 that quickly became popular in the Sauerland and southern Ruhr areas. Part of their high quality is supposed to come from their water source, as many breweries claim. Krombacher has always been on the forefront of marketing - making a major push to win over former East Germans after Reunification, and sponsoring several Bundesliga and handball teams. In 2002, they had an interesting campaing with the WWF, whereby Krombacher would save 1 square meter of rainforest in the Central African Republic for every case sold. Sales jumped 8% that year and other German companies followed suit using charitable campaigns as marketing tools.  After a lawsuit (and successful appeal stating that Krombacher was not misleading consumers), they've changed and relaunched the campaign again. I guess you'd have to be a pretty big beer drinker to make a noticeable impact, but it is an appealing concept to drink beer for the environment! Their Facebook page claims that they have invested over €3 million in conservation efforts.  

 

For this tasting, we had my parents as special guests. During their visit, we took advantage of having an extra pair of votes, as well as giving my dad a chance to taste some new beers. He prefers a Pils, so this was a fun one for him.

We wanted something that wouldn't overpower the beers, so made my favorite paella with chicken, asparagus, and manchego cheese. Really, it's closer to a Spanish risotto, but it's really tasty and easy to make. And Herr J made his famous feta-stuffed red peppers. A good match for the pils!

First up was the Warsteiner-Krombacher matchup. Looking at the beers, the Warsteinger was lighter in color and more carbonated than the Krombacher. It was almost "spritzy," if that's a word. Despite it having a slightly flatter feel, the Krombacher had more taste than the Warsteiner and we chose it as the winner.  We had expected the Warsteiner to prevail, but that's exactly why we've been doing blind tastings.

Next up were Jever and Radeberger. Both were good, standard Pilsners. The Jever, however, had a slight odd aftertaste. Not bad exactly, but enough that the Radeberger clearly won. We will try the Jever again, in case we just had a couple bad bottles.  

We end the night with Krombacher vs Radeberger. Again, we find ourselves changing our minds....thought we normally choose the less hoppy beer, we chose Krombacher over Radeberger because Radeberger tastes a little flat and tasteless when compared to the Krombacher. Though the Krombacher was slightly more hoppy, it was still a smooth and non-bitter, very drinkable beer.

Moving on to the Pilsners

So far we've tasted a ton of Helles, Weißbier, Oktoberfest Märzen, Dunkles, and Starkbier. And these do represent what is most often drunk in Southern Bavaria. But it isn't necessarily representative of all of Germany's tastes or of German beers known worldwide. For many Germans, a Pils is the standard beer. If you walk into a bar in Hamburg and ask for a Helles, they'd probably laugh at you.

A Pils is what many people know as beer and it's the closest relative to most mainstream American beers. Calm down, no need to panic, we're not claiming a Miller Light is anything like a Warsteiner...but these are the beers that have the hoppy "beer taste" that most Americans know and love as beer. They come from the Bohemian (mostly Czech) style of beer, which is the same one that influenced Budweiser, Miller, and the other popular beers in the US.

A Pils has a similar alcohol content and wort to Helles and both are pale lagers. The most noticeable difference is in taste - put simply, a pils will have a much stronger taste to its hops than a helles. It sometimes is slightly clearer, too. But the main difference will be the degree of hoppiness.

So, we decided to ease into the Pils round with a pair of Pils from Munich brewers and a pair that will be well-known to beer drinkers around the globe.

Match 1: Paulaner Premium Pils vs Löwenbräu Premium Pils

First off, these are not always easy beers to find in Munich. The just aren't in major demand, but the breweries acknowledge that some customers want more hops in their beer. They seem to be somewhat the red-headed stepchildren of the family, though...Paulaner lists its beers by categories: Weißbier, Helles beers, Seasonal beers, and "other". the "Other" includes only two - the Premium Pils, and the cola-orange drink mix Spezi. But both take brewing very seriously and brew a beer in the Bohemian style, according to Bavarian tradition.

The two beers appeared similarly in the glass, though had quite different tastes. The Löwenbräu was much hoppier, and tasted slightly bitter to us.

Obviously this one is a matter of taste...we've found through this that we prefer balanced beers, or ones leaning into the malty side of taste. So, a Pils would usually not be our first beer choice. However, if you are someone who wants a manly, hoppy beer, then you would vote differently. (And we can recommend some crazily hoppy beers if you need!)

The Paulaner surprised us - it was great. Very light and though it was definitely a Pils, it had a slightly sweet finish. This one clearly is a Pils for the Bavarian market! It's a beer that will go well with spicy foods - it's strong than a helles and will stand up to the spiciness, but it doesn't have such a strong or sweet taste (as would a dunkel or weißbier) that would compete against the taste of your food.

Match 2: Beck's vs Beck's Gold 

Beck's is one of Germany's top breweries, established in Bremen in the 1870's, and now is part of InBev. Beck's Pilsner is widely available, though Beck's Gold is not sold in the US.

We're not exactly sure how the two are positioned, or if Beck's Gold is supposed to be a better or more upscale beer. Neither had a very strong taste - not surprising, since they are similar and appeal to such a large number people. But we found the Beck's Gold to be less bitter and a better balance of hops and very slight sweetness. Both were very drinkable, but we preferred the Gold.

Paulaner Pils vs Beck's Gold:

On to the matchup between Paulaner and Beck's Gold... These were very similar in taste and level of hoppiness. It makes me think that maybe Beck's Gold is meant to be a slightly smoother or lighter version of their regular Pils. We ended up voting for the Paulaner. It was a really enjoyable Pils - hoppy, without being bitter, and it had a more complex mix of flavors.   

I'm not a big Pils drinker, but have surprised Herr J a few times when I chose this beer to drink with dinner. Thanks to this beer tournament and the winter weather, my balcony basically is a large beer fridge...