As brewing styles go, the Italian pilsner doesn’t have the hyper-long lineage of its German and Czech pilsner counterparts. It’s really a baby compared to those Old World brewing titans, a hybrid form of the German pils that pairs older brewing techniques with an increased appetite for hops. The Italian pilsner retains the crispness and lightness (and overall drinkability) of the style, but with an added dimension of a nice amount of bitterness from the dry-hopping.
This style should be everywhere. It’s really the perfect summer beer. It stands on its own, ice cold from a can and can be paired with anything. It’s fairly low gravity, so you won’t get wasted from a pint or two. And it definitely upends expectations—you get that familiar funky-but-sweet honeysuckle type nose, plus an appealing amount of bitterness from then hops. It’s also a pretty effervescent style, so you experience the carbonation in the back of your throat and tip of your tongue while the bitterness sort of clings to your palette.
We definitely enjoyed sampling this in a taster at Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest during Full of Hell’s whirlwind set. It is absolutely worthy of a full pour, so thankfully Wake dropped a bunch if tallboys in bottle shops en route to dBMBF. Have your friends in Philly score this one for you or make a pilgrimage to the Wake taproom in Illinois. This brew is beyond crushable. Like Full of Hell, the experience will be over 15 minutes before you expected and you won’t really understand what you experienced, but you’ll definitely be a little buzzed and euphoric.
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