Omnipollo Prize Pils (brewed at Brunswick Bierworks, Toronto; 4.8%)

The latest collaborative effort between the Toronto-based contract brewing facility, Brunswick Bierworks, and the Swedish beer firm, Omnipollo, this was originally developed at Bavaria’s Camba Brewery, located east of Munich. It is described on the Omnipollo website as “balancing the supreme drinkability of a Helles with the floral flirt of a pilsner.” (Not sure why ‘helles’ is capitalized and ‘pilsner’ is not, but so be it.)

Refreshingly, unlike much of the Omnipollo line brewed at Brunswick, this has only a slight haziness on its light gold colour, with the advertised ‘floral flirt’ looming large in the fragrant and ever-so-slightly cotton candy-ish, wild flowers and carnations aroma, accented by gentle grainy notes which emerge as the beer warms. The palate entry is lightly sweet, floral, and frankly a bit watery, lacking both the malt heft of a typical German helles and the hop influence of a German style pilsner. Things improve on the mid-palate, however, with a cereally malt character balancing an emerging grassy hop bitterness, still leaning a bit on the lightly sweet side, but drying towards the finish with a more leafy hop bitterness. The website also speaks of ‘supreme drinkability,’ which sounds about right, but I’m still left wanting something more from this.

75 ($3.95)