Bières sans frontières, Great British Beer Festival 2007
ABV: 4.9%
Origin: Jever, Niedersachsen, Germany
Website: www.jever.de
Jever Pilsener
This characterful pils-style lager from the German part of historic Fryslân is one of the driest and hoppiest of the established German lagers. Founded by the König family in 1848, the brewery passed through other family hands before being acquired in 1923 by the successful Hamburg-based group Bavaria-St Pauli, and subsequent investment turned it into a national brand. A series of mergers among German regionals from the 1980’s onwards saw Jever split off from St Pauli (now part of Carlsberg) and merged with one of the country’s biggest brewery groups, Radeberger Gruppe, now part of the major food group Oetker, but the brewery, modernised in the 1990s, has been retained and its flagship beer still boasts a distinctive character.
The clear delicate light golden beer has a fine white head and a strong earthy, herbal aroma. The lively palate is very smooth and bone-dry, with clear hoppy giving a grapefruity tang, with a feint yeasty note. The bitterness develops in the finish with late softening hints of vanilla and cream. “Friesisch herb,” it says on the label, actually meaning Frisian dry, though the aromatic herbal character invites the English reading too.
More Bières sans frontières selections in the next post.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/jever-pilsener/4003/
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