David Brockington's Tasting Notebook

Dock Street Bohemian Pilsner

As with my recent reviews, this beer arrived at my abode thanks to Charlie Gow. I was also planning on posting a review of Dock Street's Amber Ale, but the bottle was clearly stale (no fault to Charlie, I'm sure) and I felt that it probably didn't do Dock Street justice.

Initial Impressions:

This beer came packaged in a standard 12-ounce longneck with a fairly standard label. I recall having had this beer at the 1993 National Homebrew Conference (Free Beer!) and being duly impressed, although I didn't take notes. The moniker "Bohemian" caught my eye -- this makes a clear statement that the brewer wants to emulate the "great" pilsners rather than the fair examples. This also implies a symphony of Saaz, from the bitter to the flavor to (and especially) the nose. Between my memory of this beer in Portland last summer and its claim to the Bohemian heritage, my expectations were piqued, to say the least. This may not have been entirely fair for the beer, as the review to follow indicates.

The color of the beer was an appropriate deep golden with brilliant clarity. A nice, smooth white head developed, and a touch of lace remained through the entire tasting process.

Nose:

The first impression in the nose was not Saaz hops, unfortunately. It was, however, cardboardy, which indicates oxidation, which indicates age or poor handling practices. In fact, the expected explosion of hops never materialized. Since the hop nose is one of the first victims of age/oxidation, I would suspect that my bottle had seen some hard times, which is probably no fault of the brewer.

Flavor:

For the most part, this beer was crisp as a lager should be, although there was a hint of fruitiness that persisted in butting into the experience. There was also a cloying sweetness bouncing about -- underattenuation in the yeast perhaps? The body was medium, which is where it should be for a Bohemian, but neither the maltiness nor the hopiness expected out of a Bohemian Pilsner developed.

Final Analysis:

Unimpressive. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but the consensus of the table seemed to indicate a sup-par performance. The hops simply never materialized into what they should have been. The malt didn't welcome us with its soothing warmth. What did stand out were the flaws -- primarily due to oxidation, which may not necessarily be the fault of the brewer, so take this review with the requisite caveat. However, I have had many more enjoyable experiences with Full Sail's Pilsner or even imported PU (on tap) than this bottle of Dock Street.

Score:

** out of *****

Next Up:

Wild Goose Amber Beer
Wild Goose Snow Goose Winter Ale
Copyright 1994 by David Brockington, all rights reserved

David Brockington, Seattle, USA
bronyaur@u.washington.edu