Tuesday 19 January 2010

Lager (?) of the week — Plzen Ij

I haven’t been drinking in Holland since an enjoyable afternoon at the Red Lion in the Limburg city of Venlo several years back; here Lindeboom’s uncomplicated but enjoyable Pilsner was the order of the day amongst others, including the landlord’s own home-brewed take on a tripel (it was pretty good). I enjoy Grolsch and Christoffel’s beers, as well as the ones I have had from De Molen, but more recently I have discovered Plzen Ij from the Amsterdam-based Brouwerij Het Ij. It’s an honest, unreconstructed, complex, horny handed, rough arsed, plain-spoken beer that dubs itself a Pils (see below) — and an utter delight. The nose is sweet and herbal, with hints of resiny hoppiness; on the palate it was balanced between its bittersweet notes and the start of a long bitter finish. My version was unfiltered and slightly cloudy and all the better for it. Like swallows and summers, one bottle does not make a classic but it’s a beer that really stands out and makes me want to try it again. I really like unfiltered Pilsners and I still drool over the deliciousness of the Pilsner Urquell that was served to me straight from the wood in the old tunnels beneath the brewery back in 2005 — I wonder if it is the same?
Just as I prepare to post this, I read that a top fermenting yeast is used for Plzen Ij — once again the thorny question comes to mind: is this a lager? It brings to mind something someone from one of my favourite British craft brewers said to me recently, when I asked if they were joining the British Lager campaign: ‘we make good beer, full stop.’ I won’t change the heading of this post, but if we are going to be doctrinal it’s incorrect. Oh lord, the semantics of beer don’t half drag one down.

5 comments:

  1. "horny handed, rough arsed, plain-spoken beer" is a great description for all the 't IJ range. Whatever the opposite of "designer beer" is, they make it.

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  2. Sounds like a grand drop there. Assuming that the beer in question was left to cold condition for a substantial period of time then it would surely count as "lager", seeing as though it fulfills the linguistic requirements of "lagern"?

    At this point I will duck and head for the hills.

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  3. Beer Nut — I would have also used the word rusticity except they’re in the city.
    Velky — keep a seat in the truck spare I’ll be joining you.

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  4. It used to be bottom fermented but they had problems with the yeast interbreeding.

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  5. Ron — it was actually on your website where I read the interview that alerted me to the change in fermentation.

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