Blackberry Farm has had more winners than losers in this game of beers. They haven't really had any breakout hits, but they lean toward great beers rather than bad ones. I particularly like the peculiar audacity of simply calling your beer the style that the beer is, in this case, a pilsner. Normally, a brewery would cover its bases by giving a particular recipe a name so that if it fails, it does not necessarily reflect poorly on the brewery, but instead it reflects on the invented brand. That way, you can distance yourself from it. Blackberry Farm owns themselves. I can appreciate that.
I have become a fan of pilsners, so pouring this one made me anticipate a clear, golden beverage with a mighty head. Well, this has a mighty head, and it's a vaguely golden color, but it has way too much haze to be a proper pilsner. The aroma is grainy dough with some floral hops tossed in. So, it smells just about right, even though it doesn't seem to have quite the right look.First sip is quite sedate, but it is also quite pleasing. The dough malt is generous with its sweetness, but it doesn't seem to fill the entire mouth. Instead, the floral hops are heavily watered-down, so there bitter bite is nearly nonexistent. It's a refreshing beverage, but I wouldn't say it's particularly filling beverage. It doesn't seem to have the girth that most of the beers I drink nowadays feature. But maybe that's just the sip.
Tip-in is flaccid dough malt sweetness with lemon spritzed on top and almost no carbonation. The middle is not the watery abyss that I had feared; instead, floral hops top the bread malt that lends its thickness to the center of the beverage while carbonation rises up. The finish is a bitter downturn from the sweet heights as the dough turns to grains.
Bottom Line: Not the best pilsner, but not a bad beer.
3.0/5