12 March 2017 - Best Beer HQ
Galbraith’s Czech-Style Pilsner Review
ABV: 5.3%
Blurb on the bottle: This Special Edition Pilsner is the big brother of Galbraith’s most popular beer served at their alehouse. Bigger and bolder, it’s a classic European lager, made here in NZ from original Czech ingredients for you to enjoy fresh.
Who or what is Galbraith’s? Keith Galbraith’s opened his eponymous alehouse in 1995 with the heart-felt desire to reintroduce real ale – the beer of our forebears – to New Zealand. Fast forward more than 20 years later and craft beer is a $100m industry in this country, and Galbraith’s, one of its pioneers, has its beer in liquor stores and supermarkets.
This beer tastes like: The time I spent New Year’s Eve freezing my ass off in Prague, drinking some amazing pilsner but only paying peanuts for it. You see, like the brewery itself, this beer seems to harken back to the good old days.
That’s because it’s a rather traditional-style pilsner; there’s nothing weird or quirky about it, just lightly grassy hops and sweet pilsner malt. It’s also crisp and clean, slightly peppery, with only mild bitterness.
As you can see in my picture, above, Galbraith’s Czech-style pilsner pours the colour of sunshine, with about a millimetre or two of lacing.
The verdict: This beer is good, but not great. I just think there’s tastier Kiwi-style pilsners on the market these days, and if I was in the mood for a traditional Czech-style beer, I’d probably opt for my beloved Pilsner Urquell over this.
Beer/movie combination: You know what else is good but not great? The Wolverine from 2013.
It’s a heck of a lot better than what came before it, the abysmal X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but not nearly as good as Logan, which I just saw the other night.
The latter, in beer terms, would be a really ballsy, hoppy pilsner that’d just about rip your face off.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Leave a Reply