Opened cold and poured hard from a 473ml can into whatever was clean. Unfiltered straw with a faint haze, the head soft and slow to settle.
Saphir over a german pils base, finishing at 5.3% with 40 IBU. The restraint in that grain bill is the reason the rest of it works.
Spend a minute with the glass before drinking, because the nose is the best thing here. The palate is honest and a little plain after that introduction, though nothing about it is wrong.
The whole point of a beer at 5.3% is the second and third glass, and this survives both. There is no cloying edge, no fatigue in the finish, and the hop character stays legible right through. That is harder to achieve than a big beer, and it gets a fraction of the credit.
Against the rest of the lager shelf this holds its own comfortably. It is not the beer that will convert anybody to the style, but it is the one you reach for once the converting is done, and at $4.60 / 355ml it is honestly priced.
Bought at Beer Store (seasonal at the time of writing). Fine in the can, better on tap. Avoid anything past the freshness date.
Best drunk fresh, in company, with nobody taking notes. We took notes anyway.
