Victoria-brewed perfect Pilsner and whack Weizenbock
By Taylor Pitt, Columnist
Another Monday night, another beer, and this time it’s Vancouver Island-based Moon Under Water Brewery’s Potts Pils Unfiltered. If you take away the brewery’s name, this beer sounds like it could be some kind of drug-addled comedy film, so I hope that’s a good sign. Next, I’ll review their Victorious Weizenbock, because it’s a Weizenbock and if you put one in front of me I can’t say no.
Potts Pils pours a light, peachy-gold colour, and my pour left a head of two fingers in height. It smells highly of citrus, very sweet and light, but unfortunately, due to a slightly stuffy nose, I couldn’t pick up much more than that. At first taste, Potts Pils is sickly sweet and incredibly lemony, but not unpleasant, and tastes lighter than the 5.2 per cent alcohol volume it claims. It leaves behind a wonderful aftertaste on the tongue, and is silky smooth going down.
Overall, I’m quite pleased with the beer, although it’s a little too light for my own personal taste. If, on the other hand, you’re the type of person to enjoy much lighter beers on average, please consider this brew from Moon Under Water. It can be purchased for about $6.75 from many local liquor stores.
Next up is their Victorious Weizenbock. With a name like that, it’s obvious they’ve got supreme confidence in this brew. It pours dark brown, and when held up to the light, it’s a hazelnut colour at the top and bottom, while remaining dark in the centre. Its head is only half a finger in height, although I poured rather slowly. My first taste of it came as a huge surprise, and I’m going to leave a bit of extra space in here to give you some time to prepare for this.
You ready? It tastes almost like an energy drink. Not any energy drink in particular, but definitely an energy drink. I’m sitting here wondering what to write about this because I’m so surprised by this taste. It’s not horrible, but it’s highly unusual. Victorious Weizenbock’s not-so-victorious palate contains incredibly sweet and sour notes. It tastes strongly of cloves and banana, as well as lots of citrus.
Every time I take a sip I’m surprised anew, and honestly, I’m not so sure that’s a good thing as it becomes increasingly tough to drink. Honestly? If I’m unable to take this kind of beer, I’m not so sure there are many others who will be able to. However, if you’re a fan of those Rockstar with vodka drinks, maybe give this beer a try. If I was forced to give this beer a rating on a scale of one to 10, it’d be a solid question mark, exclamation mark, question mark.
