Pilsner pack (nothing to hide)

Beer is an imperfect thing that requires controlling nature in defiance of god in order to make many versions of a thing consistently & well. Faults happen. I’ve been to breweries that have completely hermetically sealed distribution chains in order to reduce the possibility of faults occurring in a single bottle. Even then, you get imperfections.

Sometimes the imperfections are parsed as quirky or fun. You barrel-age an imperial stout for 9 months; of course you’re gonna have something different every year. The vagaries of climate impact both crops & process. You end up with vintages, some of which might be busted & weird. Consumers accept this. It’s part of the journey. You get this beautiful spirit of exploration.

Not so with pilsners. Pilsners are correct or they are not. Pilsners are fresh or they are not. Once they are kegged or bottled, the clock is ticking. There is nowhere for faults to hide when you are making a pilsner. You’re out there, in the elements, working with no safety net.

The progression that people have in craft beer snobbery usually starts at stouts & quads, and then progresses to more polarizing styles like DIPAs or sours. But you know you have truly graduated beer school when you come back to pilsner. When you know you are holding something that is textbook, that exists with clarity. You walk into an empty field, feel the sun on your face, and breathe for once.