Last night my good friend Dave and I went out for beers. I had seen a pub pop up often on Untappd and it seemed like they had a great beer selection. We drove over to check it out only to find that someone had tagged their house as a pub on Foursquare and then checked in there using Untappd. Jerk. From there we went to The Public. Packed. We finally ended up at Original Joes.
I’ve never gone to Original Joes specifically for beer but I thought I’d give it a try. They have all of the regular Canadian macro brewed beers on tap that you’d expect in a typical Edmonton restaurant / bar.
They have their own Original Joes branded beers so I thought I’d give them a try. The first one I tried was the Haus Frau pilsner.
I’m a big fan of this style of beer. I like a good pilsner. This is not a good pilsner.
It’s bland and dull, pretty much a cheap mass produced light lager. Bleh. They have a lot of nerve calling this a pilsner.
I asked the bartender who brews their house beer and his answer spoke volumes. Big Rock. No wonder it was terrible.
I would never drink this again.
I had seen Steamwhistle Pilsner around for a while but I was hesitant to try it, thinking that it was probably just another macro produced light beer. However recently I was in a Liquor Barn or Liquor Mart or Liquor-rama or something like that and saw singles of Steamwhistle Pilsner in a can for $1.99 so I thought, why not.The can sat in my fridge for a week or so but I finally got around to trying it this weekend.
Serving Type: 500ml can
ABV: 5%
Pour
It poured a golden yellow with a thick head which dissipated after three or four minutes. Left a thin foam on top with small bubbles rising the entire time I drank it. No surprise there.
Steamwhistle Pilsner
OK, I know the photo is terrible, I took it on my Blackberry. If someone wants to buy me an iPhone or Android or whatever with a better camera, feel free. Also, the halloween cat glass is the best glassware I have for beer. Once again, if anyone wants to buy me the proper glassware for my beer I will gladly accept!
Nose
I smelled malt and fruit, apricot maybe. It also had the expected slightly sour hops smell I associate with a pilsner.
Taste
Surprisingly toasty malt. Pleasantly bitter. From the nose I expected it to be sweeter and fruitier however it was not overly sweet and none of the fruit came through. I found it to have a nice balance of malt and hops. I felt some fizzy carbonation at the back of my mouth but not too much. I drank this while sitting outside in the sun and as it warmed up I enjoyed it more and more, which is a good sign for a beer. If your beer has to be drank ice cold maybe there is something bad hiding in there. It’s possible that due to being in the sun the beer may have been struck by the sun a bit as I picked up a bit of skunkiness in the aroma right at the end. Overall a pleasant beer. I am not too familiar with pilsners but this was good.
Drink again?
I wouldn’t go out of my way to get it but I’d have no problem drinking it again, especially if you bought it for me! My niece lives near Toronto and tells me that she prefers Mill Street Organic Lager over Steamwhistle Pilsner, sort of an apples and oranges comparison but I guess I’ll have to give the Mill Street a try!
