{"id":1178,"date":"2010-08-12T10:00:49","date_gmt":"2010-08-12T15:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/?p=1178"},"modified":"2021-08-26T11:00:11","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T16:00:11","slug":"review-shorts-imperial-spruce-india-pilsner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/review-shorts-imperial-spruce-india-pilsner\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer’s Getting Shorts-er Review: Short’s Imperial Spruce India Pilsner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nShort’s says:<\/p>\n

“Imperial pilsner brewed with Northern Michigan Blue Spruce needles and healthy doses of high alpha hops”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Short’s Imperial Sprice India Pilsner
\nImperial Pilsner, 10% ABV
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Sayeth the Guys:<\/em><\/p>\n

Ryan:<\/strong> I’d like to imagine that this beer was created by accident.\u00a0 Picture, if you will, Gary Busey’s character Drake Sabitch in the movie Black Sheep<\/em><\/a> making up a big batch of homebrew over an open fire.\u00a0 He stirs the mash with a butt of his shotgun.\u00a0 And he’s using hops that have been growing on the backside of his school bus\/war room\/home.\u00a0 You with me on this?\u00a0 Ok, all of a sudden a squirrel goes scampering across a branch knocking dozens of pine needles into the boil.\u00a0 Sabitch watches, shrugs his shoulders with a “meh”…and then tosses a hand grenade in the general direction of said squirrel.<\/p>\n

That is what I imagine happened.\u00a0 I am sure the brewing wonders at Short’s had a bit more exact science behind it.\u00a0 You’d have to when you throw tree parts into a batch of beer.<\/p>\n

Enough about how it came to be.\u00a0 What does the finish product taste like?\u00a0 Well, kind of like a pine cone.\u00a0 You get a ton of pine tree and pine cone aromas in this beer.\u00a0 I even wrote in my notes:<\/p>\n

“I imagine this is what Canada smells like.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You get a lot of pine when you drink this freshly poured too (surprised?).\u00a0 Loads of it.\u00a0 Mix that in with the hops used and you get a puckering, almost hard to drink beer.\u00a0 If you let warm a tad it gets a little bit more manageable.\u00a0 A few minutes in the glass and you’ll start to taste some of the pilsner and even some biscuity malts in the background to balance things out.<\/p>\n

I like this one.\u00a0 Kind of.\u00a0 It’s funny, I can handle a Founders Devil Dancer and just about any high IBU IPA that people have thrown at me, but this was almost too much.\u00a0 Props to Short’s, though, for pushing the envelope with this one.<\/p>\n

Karl: <\/strong>I\u2019ve drank beers with a lot of weird stuff in it. \u00a0I\u2019ve enjoyed beers with chipotles, beers with herbs, beers with basil, beers with asparagus. \u00a0I\u2019ve never, never drank anything with pieces of trees in it. \u00a0And you know what? \u00a0You don\u2019t argue with results – and this beer gets results.<\/p>\n

Open the bottle and take a whiff – first thought in my head was, \u201cOh yeah – that\u2019s a freaking pine tree. \u00a0No doubt.\u201d \u00a0And nothing after that did much to change my initial impression. \u00a0Not that it really needed it. \u00a0It poured sans head with a gold-orange color and pine, pine, pine.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, this is a bitter beer. \u00a0And it\u2019s dry – bone dry. \u00a0In my notes I equated it to \u201clike drinking a cactus,\u201d which upon further review isn\u2019t really fair to cacti. \u00a0(Hey, Shorts – how about a cactus beer? \u00a0A nopales lager? \u00a0Thoughts?) \u00a0Cactus has a natural certain sweetness to it after it\u2019s roasted, this was just straight bitter hops and pine. \u00a0Have I mentioned it\u2019s piney yet?<\/p>\n

Also, to be fair, that pineyness does back off on the taste as the more recognizable hops push through. \u00a0Even better, you can even get a touch of that pilsner sweetness back there as well if you really pay attention. \u00a0But the spruce never really goes away \u00a0-and I liked it. \u00a0Would I drink 3 in one night? \u00a0Nope, couldn\u2019t do it. \u00a0But for a beer made with trees, it\u2019s far better than you might imagine and worth enjoying once for the experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our review of Short’s Imperial Spruce India Pilsner. In my notes I equated it to \u201clike drinking a cactus,\u201d which isn\u2019t really fair to cacti.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[971,259],"yoast_head":"\nShort's Imperial Spruce India Pilsner | Guys Drinking Beer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Our review of Short's Imperial Spruce India Pilsner. 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