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| Mama's Little Yella Pils Photo: Oscar Blues. |
"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.
Merrily, 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 summer-afternoon imbibing.
Mama's is definitely not your Daddy's pilsner.
Any pilsners make your heart thump? Spill it in the comments.
















7-13-2009 @3:57PM Philpott said... Was not a fan of the Yella Pils. Every thing else from Oskar Blues has knocked me out and I have happily obliged (Dale's Pale Ale, Old Chub, and Ten Fidy) but this reminded me of motor oil, a consistency I welcome in Ten Fidy and imperial stouts, but not the lighter, more refreshing pilsners. At least in North Carolina, Oskar Blues needs to talk with distributors about can cleaning (they are consistently the narstiest, funkiest, dirty, schmutz covered cans I have ever seen).
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7-13-2009 @4:00PM Joshua M. Bernstein said... Do you mean that their cans get covered with grit and dirt? That falls to the liquor shops that display the cans to clean 'em off.
As for the flavor, sorry you don't like the Mama's—I thought it was an ace summer sipper, with a full-bodied taste that still refreshed. But hey, that's why there are a thousand different beers.
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7-15-2009 @9:33PM Ima Chimper said... Their "Old Chub" Scottish Ale is the best beer I have ever had.
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7-14-2009 @12:43AM Mike Pomranz said... I love Marty Jones!
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7-21-2009 @1:52PM Rebecca said... I love the beer and so does all my snobby master sommelier friends. They offer a informative tour. The brewers are bright, friendly and keep the brewery so clean, you can almost drink off the floors.
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