Beer of the Weekend #269: Summit Pilsener
Damn. Maybe I should have stayed home tonight and watched the TCU-Baylor game.
Tomorrow — tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow — the Hawkeyes begin the 2011 college football season at Kinnick Stadium against Tennessee Tech. I will be there, likely in the North Stands, where I have never sat before. My mom was able to nab a pair of season tickets, along with a pair of extra tickets to every game except one, so I will likely be watching every Hawkeye home contest in person. (For any of you wondering Boomers out there, I paid for half of the season package.) That means I will also have to endure countless official/TV timeouts. Ugh. I love going to Kinnick, but I also love flipping to other football games during commercials and halftime. At some point I may just stay home, where I can recline with a brew.
Speaking of brew, the beer of the weekend is my base lager: Summit Pilsener, brewed by the Summit Brewing Company of Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles. The “ENJOY BY” date is “10/23/11.”
Appearance: Straight pour into a stange. The color is a clean and clear light gold. Two fingers of fluffy white head dissipated slowly to leave a billowy head and Brussels lacing on the glass.
Smell: Nothing impressive. Pale malts, a little lemon, lightly toasted caramel, and some hop astringency.
Taste: It has a dominant grain and grass presence that gives it a pleasant sweetness. Flavors of lemon and grassy hops offer a nice, balancing bitterness. The mouthfeel is very crisp.
Drinkability: A tasty brew. Nothing too complex or pretentious Straightforward and flavorful drinking.
Fun facts about Summit Pilsener:
-Style: Czech Pilsener.
-Price: $7.99/sixer at John’s Grocery in Iowa City.
-Serving temperature: Here’s the info I got from the Summit Pilsener page: “40-45 degrees °F in a Flute, Slender Tulip/Pokal, or a Stange glass.”
-Alcohol content: 4.8 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: The beer’s webpage suggests, “Havarti cheese, poultry, seafood, Asian food.”
-IBU: 25.
-Color: The webpage pegs it at 5 degrees Lovibond.
-Gravity: 11.0ยบ Plato.
-Summit Pilsener was first brewed in 2001.
-Listed on the webpage is this “conversation starter”:
There is also a link to this video: http://www.youtube.com/user/summitbrewingcompany#p/a/u/0/tr8-IBxwbyM.
-While at John’s today, I saw Summit Oktoberfest. I’ll have to nab that while supplies last.
-“Pilsener” or “pilsner”? Either usage is fine, apparently — not according to Word — though the glorious “interwebs” do not provide any information regarding reasons for the variation. Is “pilsener” British-English? Either way, I assume “pilsener” pays homage to the style’s birthplace, Pilsen, in what is now the Czech Republic.
-At some point I want to visit the Summit Brewery. Summit brews an oatmeal stout that is only served on draft “in select places.” I am sure one of those select places is the brewery taproom or somewhere nearby.
The Quiet Man’s grade: B-.
Tomorrow — tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow — the Hawkeyes begin the 2011 college football season at Kinnick Stadium against Tennessee Tech. I will be there, likely in the North Stands, where I have never sat before. My mom was able to nab a pair of season tickets, along with a pair of extra tickets to every game except one, so I will likely be watching every Hawkeye home contest in person. (For any of you wondering Boomers out there, I paid for half of the season package.) That means I will also have to endure countless official/TV timeouts. Ugh. I love going to Kinnick, but I also love flipping to other football games during commercials and halftime. At some point I may just stay home, where I can recline with a brew.
Speaking of brew, the beer of the weekend is my base lager: Summit Pilsener, brewed by the Summit Brewing Company of Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles. The “ENJOY BY” date is “10/23/11.”
Appearance: Straight pour into a stange. The color is a clean and clear light gold. Two fingers of fluffy white head dissipated slowly to leave a billowy head and Brussels lacing on the glass.
Smell: Nothing impressive. Pale malts, a little lemon, lightly toasted caramel, and some hop astringency.
Taste: It has a dominant grain and grass presence that gives it a pleasant sweetness. Flavors of lemon and grassy hops offer a nice, balancing bitterness. The mouthfeel is very crisp.
Drinkability: A tasty brew. Nothing too complex or pretentious Straightforward and flavorful drinking.
Fun facts about Summit Pilsener:
-Style: Czech Pilsener.
-Price: $7.99/sixer at John’s Grocery in Iowa City.
-Serving temperature: Here’s the info I got from the Summit Pilsener page: “40-45 degrees °F in a Flute, Slender Tulip/Pokal, or a Stange glass.”
-Alcohol content: 4.8 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: The beer’s webpage suggests, “Havarti cheese, poultry, seafood, Asian food.”
-IBU: 25.
-Color: The webpage pegs it at 5 degrees Lovibond.
-Gravity: 11.0ยบ Plato.
-Summit Pilsener was first brewed in 2001.
-Listed on the webpage is this “conversation starter”:
Brewed exclusively with two-row Moravian 37 barley grown on the North Dakota family farm of Summit Founder Mark Stutrud’s cousin Jim and his son Todd.
There is also a link to this video: http://www.youtube.com/user/summitbrewingcompany#p/a/u/0/tr8-IBxwbyM.
-While at John’s today, I saw Summit Oktoberfest. I’ll have to nab that while supplies last.
-“Pilsener” or “pilsner”? Either usage is fine, apparently — not according to Word — though the glorious “interwebs” do not provide any information regarding reasons for the variation. Is “pilsener” British-English? Either way, I assume “pilsener” pays homage to the style’s birthplace, Pilsen, in what is now the Czech Republic.
-At some point I want to visit the Summit Brewery. Summit brews an oatmeal stout that is only served on draft “in select places.” I am sure one of those select places is the brewery taproom or somewhere nearby.
The Quiet Man’s grade: B-.
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