Bearded Iris "Pep Talk" Pilsner

I don't need a pep talk from Bearded Iris. These guys have been spurring me on to drink more of their beer for ... yup, years now. Well, they have taught me a lot of things over the years, and one of those things is to not try and predict what they are going to bring next. Yes, most of their beers are cloudy DIPAs or IPAs, but they throw in others (like this pilsner) to keep me off the scent.

The pale yellow-gold beer has a more impressive amount of foam on top than most pilsners I've encountered. The aroma of thick, fresh baked bread is right up front and doesn't care to make room for the light citrus hops that linger underneath it. Once the head starts to lower, I can see that I will get at least the ghost of some lacing, which is probably good enough.

First sip is dough and yeast riding atop a slightly bitter funk. It's possible that funk is coming from the yeast, and it intermingles with a definite lemon that asserts itself as if it was insulted by the malt that tried to hold it back from the smell.

Tip-in is medium carbonation burn with that doughy bread peppered with the yeast to bring more up-front funk than the sip indicated. The middle becomes a lemon-soaked wheat bread with that yeast easing back to allow the other, less funky tastes to come out and play. The finish is the Return of the Yeast with the funk and yeast coming back to the forefront before the bitterness joins the funk for the trail-off.

Bottom Line: Good enough.

2.5/5