Pils
USA
POP: Eddie's Liquors, 3109 St. Paul St., Baltimore, MD
Container: Brown bottle
The label for Starr Hill's Starr Pils is clean and simple. No funny names or mascots. Plain white with red and gold, they have sublimated a guitar behind their simple crest. This is perhaps to let you know that this beer is not just the square dependable white guy it appears to be. Their escutcheon is a gold star on a red circle wreathed by grain. The whole thing looks pretty Marxist, frankly. This looks like the beer that people would be drinking in Red Dawn instead of Miller Lite. Would that world be a better place, at least for beer?
Miller Lite and Starr Pils both claim the Pilsner mantle. Does Starr Pils outshine its mass-market rival? Schmaybe. At first blush, there is not much difference between the two. The head produced by the Virginian brew does seem to be a bit more substantial. Perhaps a shook-up keg of Miller Lite might produce a similar spume. The color seems to be exactly the same. The smell of Starr Pils is extremely subtle. You really have to strain to get a whiff, and what you get doesn't seem so different from what they make in Milwaukee.
The flavor is about the same. However, the queeze-inducing sweetness of most mass-market brews is replaced by a lovely seltzer aftertaste. This beer is not really that different than Miller Lite, but I wouldn't be mad if somebody handed me one after a long July bicycle ride. Starr Hill doesn't make the Pils all year round, it is just for summer. It is a great summer beer. The cicada song is doing that tidal thing as I write this, and I am well content. I would steam crabs with it, could wash down a cook-out with it. It is refreshing. Is it worth the extra scratch? I would say yes, but only because Starr Hill seems like a great brewery and I would like to try their year-round beers. Miller Lite will always be there for you, steady purchases or no. Starr Pils, maybe not.
Overall: B-/C+
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