True Pilsner beer nationwide

I got to loving Pilsner, but found most breweries have Lagers and strong for my taste. Is there a Pilsner at large chain stores or carry-outs?

Pilsner Urquell recently partnered with a hot-stuff Chicago Craft Beer marketing company like 18 months ago and they did a lot of branding exercises to lure craft drinkers to Urquell and it worked on me.

One thing they did was make a point to convince importers, distributors and stores to store the beer cold so it's kept as cold as possible from brewery to your fridge which keeps it fresher. among mass offered Pilseners, it's one of my favorites. Other favorites aren't available nationally and more regionally.

This blog post from said marketing company should make you thirsty - https://www.goodbeerhunting.com/blog/2017/7/3/coming-to-america-pilsner-urquell

Not sure what they classify their beer as, but one I favor is in the middle of Pa. and they only ship in a small radius . Straub, and always buy when I can but found its fickle about temperature changes. and gets skunky I believe because it has no preservatives.

ramble said:

Not sure what they classify their beer as, but one I favor is in the middle of Pa. and they only ship in a small radius . Straub, and always buy when I can but found its fickle about temperature changes. and gets skunky I believe because it has no preservatives.

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As a hobbyist beer expert, a few things ruin commercial beer:

• Age
• Exposure to UV light (which is why clear / green bottles are bad)
• Heat
• Dirty brewery (like literally just not well maintained equipment)
• Bad recipes

A beer can just be bad no matter how well it's stored. but properly brewed beer using quality ingredients with good packaging practices that's shipped cold to the stores and sold within 4-6 weeks will generally be worth drinking. Some breweries just don't care how distributors or stores store the brew and so you have some places that don't keep beer cold and it's there for 6 months and it's just bad by the time you get it.

Buying a bud/miller/coors from a grocery store is probably the freshest and best stored beer you're going to get that rotates through quickly. Going to a convenience store by the camp ground and buying a Guinness that's sitting on the shelf next to the AC compressor will probably be 12 months old and kept hot the entire time. If you keep in mind those variables "Cold. No sunlight. Fresher the better" you'll be fine.

I don't have any beer certifications or commercial experience but I've been home brewing for 10 years and have tasted 6,000 unique beers and consumed about 10,000 beers in the last 13 years. (Not while riding a motorcycle)

I am a Certified Cicerone, 14th in Canada. I have had over 10 000 different beers in my life. I have over 1000 bottles in my cellar. I am a mediocre home brewer.

Pilsner Urquell was the very first pilsner first brewed in 1842, it has been bought out but it is still very good, best to find in cans so as not to be light struck which is probably what you will get in North America in green bottles.

Czechvar is the original Budweiss ie Budweiser but is not allowed to be sold in North America as Budweis because AB InBev (Anheiser Busch InBev) kicked the **** out of them in the courts over the years. Part of why I don't drink AB InBev products them being a nasty company. This is also a very good Pilsner.

To my taste German pilsners are not as tasty as Czech pilsners

For low key beers hit your craft breweries and try their blonde beers.

I've been asked to lead beer tastings/tours at the 2022 MOA rally.

Any more beer questions feel free to ask me.

ramble said:

I got to loving Pilsner, but found most breweries have Lagers and strong for my taste. Is there a Pilsner at large chain stores or carry-outs?

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Pilsners in their true sense are lager style beers. Some craft breweries make what they call a pilsner, but it is an ale. Most likely because they are not set up to brew lagers because of the lower fermentation temperatures required. But with that said there are some very good Pilsner lagers in the craft brewing industry. A brewery called Firestone Walker make a Pilsner called 805. It is an ale and not a lager and falls into a blonde ale catagory. The name 805 refers to their area code.

I have had Pilsner Urquell in the Prague and in the US and the two beers are significantly different. Personally I would not drink a Pilsner Urquell in the US after have the same beer by name in Prague.

There are 10s of thousands of beers being brewed today all of which fall in to categories of beer that have been long established and continue to change with new styles being added regularly. Go to the link below to help understand beer styles, and breweries.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/styles/

I love this Czech Pilsner - Golden Pheasant - but unfortunately, it is not available "Nationwide"

NA ZDRAVIE, SLOVENSKO!
Also known as its English translation, “Golden Pheasant” this beer is Slovakia’s most popular beer. It’s the most exported Slovak beer and can be found in such countries as the USA, Canada, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Moldavia, and Kazakhstan. Over a million hectolitres are sold all over the world per year. In 2006, its 12% version was awarded the best beer in its category by the Slovak Union of Beer and Malt Producers.



BOHEMIAN PILSNER
Geographically, Slovakia is an obvious location for great lager beers. They have access to the best hops, grains and softest water in the world. This and a long brewing tradition is what makes for this very special product. It exhibits a great balance between nutty malt flavors, aromatics and delicious noble hop varieties. The finish is clean and refreshing, making Golden Pheasant an easy beer to drink.

http://stawskiusa.com/golden-pheasant/

skibum69 said:

I am a mediocre home brewer.

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Hey, we finally have something in common! I'm probably WAY worse than you. Like way worse.


...on the topic of 'beer tastings' and we can make this an in person conversation, I don't mix the two..ever. I'd like to hear more about how this would work. I know bike & beers have a cultural link in America but in Europe, beer & anything motorized isn't blended and I've sort of followed that myself. Once alcohol touches my lips, I'm not riding or driving. So I'd like to hear more about how we can safely do something like a 'tour' on bikes with tasting in mind or if it's more like a scavenger hunt..everyone heads out in a different direction, grabs 6 growlers and comes back to share the beers they found at local breweries. that would be fun and safer.

I'm sure we have more than that in common.

In my mind a brewery tour would be done by bus so that no-one would be driving. A beer tasting I would schedule for late afternoon or early evening so that people would be done riding for the day before the event.

Personally I don't mind having a beer and driving but that's all, for anything that might lead to more than one the bike stays parked and I certainly advocate that with any beer themed event I host.

The scavenger hunt could be an interesting idea.

I'm expecting 2022 organizers to be in touch with me sometime after the 2021 rally is done.

As for homebrewing we use partial mash kits from a brand called Best Case. The beer is drinkable and sometimes I'll add extra hops. We like the partial mash as we use the spent grain for bread and pizza dough etc. Also our chickens love it.

skibum69 said:

I'm sure we have more than that in common.

In my mind a brewery tour would be done by bus so that no-one would be driving. A beer tasting I would schedule for late afternoon or early evening so that people would be done riding for the day before the event.

Personally I don't mind having a beer and driving but that's all, for anything that might lead to more than one the bike stays parked and I certainly advocate that with any beer themed event I host.

The scavenger hunt could be an interesting idea.

I'm expecting 2022 organizers to be in touch with me sometime after the 2021 rally is done.

As for homebrewing we use partial mash kits from a brand called Best Case. The beer is drinkable and sometimes I'll add extra hops. We like the partial mash as we use the spent grain for bread and pizza dough etc. Also our chickens love it.

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well, I'd love to help if you want to pick my brain over the winter. too busy riding right now!

I'll keep that in mind Adam. Go ride!

skibum69 said:

Czechvar is the original Budweiss ie Budweiser but is not allowed to be sold in North America as Budweis because AB InBev (Anheiser Busch InBev) kicked the **** out of them in the courts over the years.

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Czechvar is still available in the US. I know for a fact it is available in Castle Rock, CO

thanks for the replies, I now have another reason to amble thru the nice air cooled groceries stores looking for beers this summer, the wife hates shopping, to me another reason to enjoy browsing.....retired of course!

No BMWMOA members in SK???

I am shocked that a member from Saskatchewan hasn't pointed out the obvious to all of us Canadians.

The only real Pilsner is Pilsner. While some would think that babies grew up on mother's milk, kids from SK grew up on Pilsner.

It goes down real good at Rider games and only goes skunky when the Bombers show!

Ha! I drank a lot of that when I lived in Jasper.

Pilsner

This one is good

I like beer.

This stuff is pretty special. Comes with a special price tag too.
https://www.samueladams.com/our-beers/specialty-beers/ale/utopias