Heavy Seas Small Craft Warning Uber Pils
I decided to head up highway 95 for this week’s beer, Heavy Seas Small Craft Warning Uber Pils. This is an imperial pilsner brewed in Baltimore, MD by a brewery who has had a few identity issues over the years.
Per the breweries website, they were founded in 1994 as Clipper City Brewing Company. In 1997 they absorbed Oxford Brewing Company and then added the new Heavy Seas brand in 2003. Not until recently, in 2010, did they merge all the products under the single brand of Heavy Seas brand. Heavy Seas maintains 3 series of beers under the names Clipper Fleet, the Pyrate Fleet, and the Mutiny Fleet.
Now in saying all this, the address on the labels small print still says Clipper City Brewing and they have not done a great job identifying which “fleet” the Uber Pils belongs to on either the website or bottle. The identity crisis continues.
Small Craft Warning contains 7.0%ABV and 35 IBUs. The make-up of this beer includes a whopping 6 types of hops: Warrior, Palisade, French Strisselspalt, Saaz, Simcoe, and Cascade. Additionally, they have included 2-row, Munich, and Caramalt malts.
The serving I will review will be a 12 oz bottle poured into a pilsner glass.
Appearance is a brilliant orange with minimal head. Recedes quickly leaving minimal to no lacing.
Aromas are Spicy hops, apricot, and honey.
Tastes are heavy in earthy flavors and toast, malt forward with a spicy hop flavor following through. Well balanced, but nothing really jumping out at me. After taste is a bit funky.
Mouth feel: Perfect carbonation for my taste, fairly light body and very clean.
Overall this is a nice pilsner with a bit of kick. All around a solid beer with nothing much to say negative; however, nothing is really jumping out at me to set it apart from others. A very safe pilsner that would keep most beer drinkers satisfied. If you are big on spicy hops, this beer may stand out a little more to you. I will rate Small Craft Warning Uber Pils 3 Mugs out of 5 on the Draft Notes Scale.
Learn more about Clipper City, err… Oxford, err…. Heavy Seas at http://www.hsbeer.com/.
Draft Notes 