Beer of the Week: Mama's Little Yella Pils

yella

Pardon our French, but too often American pilsners taste like piss.

Originally, Czech pilsners were gorgeous golden brews, clear as the Caribbean and as refreshing as a plunge in a pool. They were crisp and floral, champagne compared to American macrobreweries’ dirty bathwater (to wit: Miller Lite, a “true pilsner beer.”). “Mass-market pilsners are liquid Muzak,” says Marty Jones, the “lead singer and idea man” for Lyons, Colorado’s Oskar Blues.

To rebut the bland, watery brews littering the marketplace, Oskar Blues—the first microbrewery to can craft beer—has unveiled Mama’s Little Yella Pils. “We’re restoring a little honor to the concept,” Jones says of Mama’s, which re-creates a classic Czech pilsner with American craft-beer flair.

Instead of relying on cheap adjuncts like rice or corn, Mama’s is constructed with 100 percent malt and a generous dose of spicy Saaz hops. But brewing a pilsner is an exercise in restrained elegance, unlike brutish IPAs and boozy stouts potent enough to incapacitate Paul Bunyan. Happily, Mama’s nails pilsners’ narrow sweet spot.

The canned concoction decants the color of a blazing midday sun, with bubbles racing breakneck to the sudsy white head. The nose is a clean whiff of lemon and fresh-cut grass, while the creamy, full-bodied flavor of biscuits and malt leads to a prickly bitter conclusion. It’s pure thirst-quenching pleasure, an uncommonly elegant session beer (just 5.3 percent ABV) fit for summertime imbibing.

Mama’s is definitely not your Daddy’s pilsner.