Review: Devil May Care Bright Water New Zealand Pilsner

Have you ever been so adamant about something that you believe that your mind will never change about it? How about that plus there being a change in your life where your beliefs are flipped upside down? Well, it certainly has happened for me. I was someone who was very much an anti-Pilsner sort of person, there's NO way a Pilsner could ever be *good*. I kind of liked Pilsners before I was a craft beer drinker but did they ever go "wow, this tastes great!" Nope, not once. That is until I went to a Trou du Diable tap takeover at Vices & Versa one time. TDD had a German-style Pilsner on tap and I was flat out amazed how flavourful a Pilsner could be. At that moment, I knew that Pilsners would end up becoming a popular style in craft beer one day, but when?

Devil May Care was a very anti-Pilsner kind of brewery for a long time and I don't blame them, your classic macro Pilsners are sooooo boring but something happened and they did a long blog post about them coming out with a Pilsner and a vague apology to the Pilsner fans who got laughed by Steve and Colin over the years when being asked if they would come out with one.

As I say, never say never and so they ended up creating a New Zealand-style Pilsner, which I have to say is a very underrated style of beer, to the point where my first review in the old Brandon Sun column was of a New Zealand Pilsner - the style is quite nice as it's a style that's quite hoppy compared to most Pilsners, yet comes out crisp, sweet and very approachable/crushable(TM) at the same time. 

Appearance: Lemon-yellow to straw in colour with a light amount of cloudiness to it as there's some clarity but this isn't hazy at all either. Good amount of carbonation in the body and the head has a thick sparkling white appearance to it, a head that diminishes rather gradually to leave behind a light lacing on the glass.. this looks purty.

Aroma: Hop-forward Pilsner with a rich leafiness to it, light grassy notes and a slight bitterness as well. It's got a very crisp aroma to it, a bit of lemon as well as an aroma that perplexes me a tad.. but my mind keeps thinking "hmm.. this reminds me of cucumber" but it doesn't at all. Quite smooth

Taste: The hops are what pop out in this beer at first - a floral, leafy, citrusy presence that tastes like chewing on fresh leaves (not a bad thing), lemon and a tad bit of a vegetal cucumber-like presence. Slightly sweet, quite crisp, pretty watery mouthfeel and an aftertaste that I can only really describe as slightly leafy. 

Overall Thoughts: Not your (grand)father's Pilsner, that's for sure. It's got a hop presence that I haven't seen in many pilsners on the prairies - floral, leafy as heck and even a tad vegetal, but very easy to drink and not at all aggressive at all.