San Miguel Pale Pilsner

At first glance I thought this was a Mexican beer. Then, I thought the regal way the label is laid out might reflect a more European way of doing things, so maybe it was from Spain. It's a pilsner, though, and that is very Germanic or even Belgian, but the name wouldn't fit a... wait! Italian shares a lot with Spanish, so maybe this is from northern Italy. Then I looked - would not have guessed Hong Kong.

The clear, gold beer is just about right for a pilsner, and it froths quite a bit before the head vanishes, and it does so very abruptly. I didn't expect lacing, so it's meeting my expectations so far. The aroma is wet dough. Well, you may ask, what are the other smells? Nope. There's just dough. It's all wet and flour-covered.

First sip is lemon spritz, bread dough, orange rind, and seltzer. The thing that I have found with a lot of pilsners so far is that they tend to be a bit simple or they go the other direction and try to be too complex. This one is definitely going simple as far as the taste buds can ascertain with a little sip. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. It's not like this is as sippable as an all day IPA or something.

Tip-in is lemons with their associated tartness alongside apples with a bread backing. The middle rolls with a prickling at the roof of the mouth while the lemons and apples are joined by the orange rind and the bread turns to dough. The finish is a crisp cut-off of tastes before the mist of wet dough wafts in with lemon spritz on the wind.

Bottom Line: I mean... could be a lot worse.

2.5/5