A Proustian Moment: Hindsight German Pilsner by Working Draft Beer Company

In my relationship with Working Draft Beer Company, I use the rhythm method. I'll go to my local purveyor of barley pop and see some WDBC brews that look to be right up my Strasse and I want to try all of them. Then on my next visit I find that those beers are all gone and have been replaced with hazy/juicy/pulpy or whatever IPAs that I have no interest in and wish would go away forever. But, with some patience, beers of theirs that I want to drink eventually appear again on a return visit. It's like the circle of life. But different.

Earlier this year they had a Czech pilsner and then an ESB. Just dandy. Soon enough, however, the beer cooler situation turned hazy. It eventually dissipated to reveal that there was a Czech amber lager on offer. When that was gone, then the juicy returned. But we're back on the upswing here as I recently saw their German pils, Hindsight, in the cooler.

While the German pils doesn't exactly count as a rarity in these parts, there are far fewer of them brewed here in the Madison area than one might expect for Wisconsin. Capital and Great Dane each offer one year-round, although it's too bad that Great Dane's Verruckte Stadt lost its local color when it was renamed the less idiosyncratic, though more descriptive, "German Pils". Vintage, Parched Eagle, and Next Door all put out a German pils seasonally or perhaps just whenever the brewmasters feel like it.

Into the fray comes Working Draft. Or came, rather, as this is Chapter 5 of the Hindsight saga. I don't know if this simply means it's the fifth batch, the fifth iteration of the recipe, or something else. From what I can gather on the interwebs, chapter 1 of Hindsight came out in 2019 so they seem to brew it a couple times a year.

So what makes a pilsner German? The Czechs invented the pilsner but the Germans aren't stupid and they picked up on a good thing when they tasted it. A Czech pilsner has a fair bit of breadiness to it along with a healthy dose of Saaz hops. The Germans took the general framework but tweaked it a bit. They went easier on the malt and used a goodly amount of their native hops which proved to add more bitterness. Oh, and they gave it more fizz too.

The funny thing is that I've always found Czech pilsners to be more hoppy and more bitter than their German counterparts. No doubt there are various reasons for this including having sampled few pilsners from the land of the Czechs. While I've sampled many a pils from Deutschland, they probably, not unlike their Czech counterparts, weren't all that fresh. And just how representative are the pils from Krombacher, Bitbuger, Warsteiner, etc. of the style? The imported German pils on store shelves here in Madison are from larger breweries, some of which are parts of even bigger conglomerates. Are they the German equivalent of Bud/Miller/Coors swill? Or more true to style?

I don't know the answer to that quandary. But I do know that it can be had with a trip over to central Europe. Perhaps my impression is simply due to having had more Czech pilsners made here in the States where restraint in hopping is not a virtue than from the Bohemian motherland.

Now, onto Hindsight. Mine was canned on 5 June which made it pretty gosh darn fresh when I did my sampling.

It poured a crystal clear yellow with just a smattering of bubbles to be seen inside. Atop that was a nice white head of loose foam that stuck around for what I think of as an average amount of time.

I'll be honest with you, dear reader, and say that I was ill-prepared at first for my sampling. I opened the can and poured the beer but had trouble finding the right spot for a photo and then I couldn’t see my phone's screen because the brightness was turned down on it but not on the sun. And so my photo doesn't quite get the full head and there is condensation on the glass so it doesn't look quite as pretty as it should. On the other hand, it meant that my nose was tempted by Hindsight's aroma for longer than it normally would. And this was a good thing because it was simply delightful with hay, pepper, and citrus smells wafting about. When I moved my nose in closer, it caught a little cracker. I think I started to salivate at this point.

After wiping the drool away, I put the glass to my mouth and let 'er rip. The light body held some cracker taste mixed with a wonderful triad of hoppy flavors: grass, lemon, and a more general herbal one. The fizz was a model of effervescent perfection. It tingled my tongue just right and added a pleasant dryness but it let all of the grainy and hoppy flavors through. While there was some bitterness on the finish, I didn't find it to be as much as style guides admonish brewers to provide. The hops left lingering herbal and spicy flavors to hang out with a biscuit taste. It was crisp and moderately dry but, again, not as dry as my reading had led me to believe it should be.

It's obvious from the first sip that Hindsight is an excellent beer. No doubt the freshness was a big part for me. Opening the can and smelling those hops led me to a Proustian moment. At the very instant when those sprightly hoppy scents touched my nose, I quivered, attentive to the extraordinary thing that was happening inside me, you could say. It's that grass/hay kind of scent. It goes right to my limbic system and triggers something because I just adore that aroma. I am drawn to it like a moth to the flame.

To my taste, Hindsight just has it all. A mild yet very tasty malt flavor sits easily next to a wonderful zesty, green hoppiness with everything in perfect proportion. It's 4.8% and really hit the spot on a recent summer day.

Junk food pairing: To accompany such a delicate and exquisite beer, you should pair it with a big bowl of shrimp chips. Get the ones you have to fry yourself, if possible, as they'll be warm and greasy as well as light and puffy.