Kulmbacher Edelherb Premium Pils

By John & Dad on August 5, 2008 @ 7 PM (No Comments)

It’s Thursday Father and Son Beer Love beer review time again. This week we wrangled up a Kulmbacher Edelherb Premium Pils, which is a Bavarian lager brewed by Kulmbacher Brauerei AG.

We poured our 4.9% ABV, 12 ounce bottle of Premium Pils into an American pilsner glass (how appropriate!) and got an initial temperature of 43.3 F. The first pour generated an average 1 3/4″ foamy white head that dissipated quickly and left a fair amount of head lacing in the process. A good start! There was a tremendously lively amount of carbonation with some big bubbles. The body clarity was extremely clear and sparkling – actually one of if not the clearest beer we’ve ever done. The body color was light – in the neighborhood of straw.

The initial aromas were barley, hay, citrus (mostly lemon) and yeast. Not much too it, but it is a pils after all. The initial flavors gave us some light toasted malts, some more lemon and something resembling a light white wine vinegar. The initial flavor notes are a light sweet and light bitter that evolve in the finish to a very light sweet, light acidic and a moderate bitter. The finish duration is average, the mouthfeel is dry and somewhat thin and there is no body lacing to speak of (surprising considering there was some decent head lacing). The tastes hit you right in the middle of your tongue, except for a touch of sweet on the front. On our patented malt to hop scale we came in about one and a half clicks to the right of balanced on the hoppy side.

Our bottom line notes show a yes for repeatable, drinkable and balance and a no for harmony, memorable and wow factor. We probably wouldn’t but this one again.

Overall it’s not offensive, there just isn’t anything to write home about here. It’s not complex but it’s not supposed to be. It’s slightly sweet and reminds us of a Dortmunder/Helles with a slightly stronger hops edge at the end. Though it’s light it’s got a decent balance, skewed a bit by the vinegar taste in the hops on the finish. This is another one that would probably be better pretty cold, maybe in a frosty mug. Father Beer Love notes it could work nicely into a radler (our favorite dessert – half beer and half lemonade). We wouldn’t mind trying something like this in a dunkel or a dark beer. We started out giving this a 4 out of 10, but skewed it down to a 3 by the end. We’re looking forward to trying some of the other Kulmbacher beers in the coming weeks.