It's Gonna Be a Showdown: Imperial Pilsnerama

On Thursday, I brought home two of the new Imperial Pilsners that we just got into the shop: Dogfish Head's Golden Era (the beer formerly known as Golden Shower until the oblivious BATF finally caught on to the obvious innuendo) and Sam Adams' Hallertau Imperial Pilsner. So last night, I thought I'd bring them head to head and see what happens...

First, here's the contenders:



What struck me the most is that DFH, an "extreme" craft brewery, was the one who filtered theirs and made it truer to style, while Sam Adams, the more mainstream of the two breweries, made an unfiltered cloudy version.



The theme carries through to the end, too. The nose on the DFH is more restrained and malty...even slightly sweet. The 9% ABV hides itself well, until 10 minutes later when you're stumbling around. The Sam Adams, on the other hand, is massively hoppy, and incredibly bitter for the style. Very surprising.

The palate on the DFH is clean and malty, and very weighty for a pilsner...but despite the fact that there's not a whole lot of precedent for this style, it really reads like an "imperial" pils. The hops are there, but it's really balanced. Incredibly restrained and subtle for a DFH imperial anything. The Sam Adams is all hops. If I were them, I wouldn't be calling this a pilsner...just a hopped-up blonde or something. There's nothing about this, other than the apparent use of pils malt, that makes it a pilsner. But that's not to say its bad...it's actually immensely enjoyable. The hops are in your face, and very spicy & fresh. The complexity is heads and shoulders above the Golden Era, and I really enjoy every sniff and every sip.

At the end of the day, these are two very different beers. DFH wins on the style front, which is very interesting given their background as an extreme brewery. The Sam Adams wins on the enjoyability factor...and their claim of an intense hop experience is warranted. There's plenty of complexity here, and I just like the beer better overall...and yes, I am a hophead.

I've got to call this one a draw. DFH made a more "correct", subtle beer, while Sam Adams made a wacky, hop-heavy pilsner, something that is almost never done...and succeeded at making a great hoppy blonde ale.

Thanks for the info. I didn't even know that Sam Adams made such a beer.

Sounds like a complete reformulation of the DFH beer; the bottle I had (about a year ago) tasted like fruitcake-flavored cough syrup. Plus, WAY bitter, yet still unbalanced; it had very little hop flavor to cut through the cloying malt. Worst beer of my wife, I'd drink BMC all day before I touched that again. Maybe they learned!

Musta been reformulated...nothing like what you say...f*ck I'm drunk

Actually, I am going to agree with the_bird. I had the Golden Era from DFH and found it way to cloying to be enjoyable.

I'm having the Dog Fish Head right now and I would have to agree with most of the above that it's very sweet which is the exact opposite of a pilsner style. I still have over half a 750mL left and I don't know if I can haddle drinking it.

I guess I have a little bigger tolerance for sweetness than yous guys. You want sweet...120 minute...yeah.

sause said:

I'm having the Dog Fish Head right now and I would have to agree with most of the above that it's very sweet which is the exact opposite of a pilsner style. I still have over half a 750mL left and I don't know if I can haddle drinking it.

Click to expand...

I ended up dumping it. Bottle cost me a lot of money, it was painful watching it go - but worse forcing myself to drink it

It wasn't a dumper for me, but it wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been. It tasted like it had a great pilsner on top, but underneath, it was just a straight cloying taste. I feel this is a problem with many of Dogfish head's beers. Great flavor, if only they brought the FG down a couple of points more.

Being somewhat of a hophead and having a fiancee who is a card-carrying hophead, this 'showdown' is making me want to pick up some Sammy's HIP! Think I'll see if I can get some on the way home tonight. Might be just the thing to sip while watching the Cubs play the Snakes tonight.

Thanks for the review. And thanks a lot for sticking that damn ELO song in my brain!

O'Dells makes an imperial pilsner which I tried, I had a similar experience with this beer as many of you talk about, it was cloyingly sweet and I didn't like it at all, had to force my way through a 4-pack. Fortunately I was drinking it with some very very spicy thai food which balanced it decently. Saw the Sam Adams at the store yesterday but was scared off my my previous experience, maybe I'll try it.

The term 'cloying' sweetness is being tossed around quite a bit. 'Cloying' by itself means excessive, so do you mean the beer is too sweet?

I ask this because many tasters here differentiate between sweetness (which can be good) and cloying sweetness. Maybe a few of you could elaborate on when sweet becomes cloying.

Nyxator said:

The term 'cloying' sweetness is being tossed around quite a bit. 'Cloying' by itself means excessive, so do you mean the beer is too sweet?

I ask this because many tasters here differentiate between sweetness (which can be good) and cloying sweetness. Maybe a few of you could elaborate on when sweet becomes cloying.

Click to expand...

Eh...I think you answered your own question. By "cloying", they are saying the beer is overly sweet, to the point that it is not enjoyable.

And I'll echo what others said....I had this beer about a year ago, and found it cloyingly sweet. Not just out-of-style sweet, but nastily so--for any style. And Yaboosh said exactly what I think of most DFH beers.....they're under attenuated, at least for my taste. If they'd get 90 Min a couple FG points lower, it would probably be the perfect beer.

Cloyingly sweet to me means that it is so sweet that it almost makes me pucker, much like sucking on belgian candi sugar or drinking jolt cola...syrupy sweetness. I find a lot of IIPA's to be that way too, even some barleywines. It is ok if balanced with enough hop bitterness, but in the case of the odells, all I got was sweetness.

sweetness is not necessarily something I dislike, a lot of belgian goldens, saisons, and stouts I make/drink I think are sweet, and I like them, cloying to me is just too sweet to the point of being a problem

than again, opinions are like azzholes, everyone has one and they all smell like ****

OK, sorry for all the posts but my roomate just showed up with the Sam Adams Imp. Pilsner, so I have one in hand.

Fantastic beer, not really a pilsner in a traditional sense. It is bottle conditioned, pour carefully and leave a bit. It is still cloudy, pours with a nice head that settles slowly and drinks with little lacing. Aroma is tea-like, reminds me of strong brewed iced tea with an earthy hop aroma. Initial taste is hoppy and earthy, nice use of the Hallertau, spicy, tangy, finishes with a mellow, nice hop bite without too much sweetness or bitterness, well balanced, and a similar tea like finish. I do taste the pilsner malt, and can tell it is there, but this is not a pilsner by any means. I don't think it is super hoppy, but I did just preceede this with an IPA, so my buds might be a bit burnt.

All in all, well worth $10 for a 4-pack if for nothing else other than to try it. It is 8.8% and I am feeling it after 22oz of Haus Pale and 22oz of my Saison IPA.

There must be some inconsistancy with the batches of Sam's HIP out there. I had it a few weeks ago and while it was ok, I got nothing but hops, hops, hops and bitterness. I didn't find any complexity at all and certainly no characteristics of what I find in a good Pilsner.

I agree with Evan's point that they should've just called it an Imperial Blonde or something like that. It was ok as far as something different to give a try to, but I doubt I'll be buying it again. There are way better beers out there if you're looking for the "hop explosion" Sam's is tauting on the label.

I've said it before, but there are some beers where making them "Imperial" is just antithetical to what defines that beer style. When I think of a pils, I think - light bodied, refreshing, sessionable. Making an "Imperial Pils" removes every one of these three defining Pilsner characteristics. You might as well make an "Imperial Mild" while you're at it

the_bird said:

I've said it before, but there are some beers where making them "Imperial" is just antithetical to what defines that beer style. When I think of a pils, I think - light bodied, refreshing, sessionable. Making an "Imperial Pils" removes every one of these three defining Pilsner characteristics. You might as well make an "Imperial Mild" while you're at it

Click to expand...

Joo read mah mand, bahd!

it's like the beer version of an oxymoron. An oversized miniature. A quiet scream.

I think the problem here, though, is in the labeling/naming. Neither of these beers could have ever been mistaken for anything like a pilsner had it not said it on the label. One was a really sweet golden ale, the other was a super-hoppy blonde. Putting pilsner on the label is nothing short of false advertising if you ask me.

ColoradoXJ13 said:

OK, sorry for all the posts but my roomate just showed up with the Sam Adams Imp. Pilsner, so I have one in hand...

Click to expand...

I had one last night and I pretty much agree with your assesment. I didn't find it to be the hop-bomb I was expecting. But it was still good - really different. And no, it really isn't what one expects when they think of a Pilsner. Still, I'd get it again, as it was on sale for something like $9 a 4-pack.

My beer pusher was out of the DFH Golden Whatever or I might have gotten it. As it was, I got some Two Brother's Heavy Handed IPA, which was good, but lacking the nose-smack hop aroma I was expecting. I got Lot# 2547 which was wet hopped with Willamette. I want to try Lot#2687 which is wet hopped with Centennial! I also got some Sprecher Oktoberfest which was just fantastic! Best commercial O'fest I've had so far this season.