Commentist Beer Barrel: Hans, Solo

My beer biases are, by now, probably pretty clear to any regular reader of the Beer Barrel. I won’t deny them, and I certainly won’t apologize for them. I love big beers. I love barleywines, imperial stouts, double IPAs, anything with a double-digit ABV and a whole lot of flavor. This is far from an unusual set of preferences; check out any website that aggregates beer reviews, and you’ll see these types are very, very well-represented at the tops of the charts. Are these styles just better than the other beers? Well, yes. I am definitely, definitely not simply mistaking the things that taste most for the things that taste best, and for even suggesting such a thing, I’m going to have to ask you to leave this review.

Okay, come back. Please come back.

Anyway, it’s always worth keeping in mind that there are beers other than the booze bombs, especially in the dead of winter (he wrote, from 66-degree Austin, Texas), when curling up under a blanket with a glass of strong spiced ale just seems like the thing to do. And maybe it’s palate fatigue, maybe I’m just a damn weirdo, but every year, around this time, I find myself craving the simple joy of a crisp, cold, clean pilsner.

Real Ale Hans’ Pils, brewed not far from me in Blanco, TX, is that kind of beer. It’s not the bland corn-and-rice-heavy light beer that’s sullied the good name of pilsner in this country. Hans’ Pils is all about fresh grain and lively European hops, going a little heavier on the latter than your average pilsner. More than most beers, it tastes very much the way the inside of a brewhouse smells. Real Ale boasts about Hans’ Pils using more hops than a lot of pale ales. That’s probably true, but these are German Tettnang hops, with a much subtler flavor than the American Cascade or Amarillo or whatever you’d use to flavor a pale, so I don’t see this one driving away IPA-haters. There’s not a ton more to say about the way this beer tastes; it’s an uncomplicated concept executed well. If a great Belgian strong ale like Duvel is a symphony, composed of diverse flavors working together to deliver something a little different with every sip, this beer is more like a solo, the clear, unobstructed expression of a singular flavor combination.

There’s a popular cliché that pilsner is the hardest style of beer to brew, because there’s nowhere for the brewer to hide his mistakes. As an inexperienced and bad homebrewer I’m not qualified to say whether that’s actually true, but it does say a lot about the essential nature of the pilsner: a stripped-down style and a simple pleasure that’s no less pleasurable for being simple. Try one on a cold night sometime, won’t you?

lady snow: Reminds me of hay. It’s definitely a pilsner, and a good pilsner, not one of those shitty pilsners that just taste like skunk.

tl;dr: It’s not too long. It’s extremely short. Go back and read it.

Grade: I once heard of a Dallas-area bar hosting a “tap takeover” and putting a keg of Hans’ Pils on each of their 19 taps. That’s pretty great.

make it snow is an alot of beer who is not thrilled about the Broncos’ performance today.

Photo credit: Thrillist