Trader Joe's Josephsbrau Plznr
We don't have a Trader Joe's market in my town, so when I go to a town that has one, I try to stop by and stock up on all kinds of goodies that aren't available at my local Kroger, Publix, Walmart, Target, etc.
It had been a while since I'd visited a TJ, and I noticed they have jumped on the craft beer bandwagon. One thing that's nice about TJ's is that you can get quality products for low or reasonable prices. Unlike Whole Foods, where I walk out with at tiny sack of groceries in my recycled organic hemp shopping bag with $150 less in my wallet.
They had a handful of different "store brand" brews, and they were cheap. About $3 - 4 less than what I was used to paying in my favorite beer store for a fine brew. So I grabbed a six pack of the "PLZNR" Czech Style Lager for $6.99.
The next evening I popped one open, got my favorite beer glass out of the fridge (not the freezer - but that's another topic of discussion) and poured it. It made a pretty nice head. It began to dissipate rather quickly. As you can see in the photo, it had gone down considerably before I could line up the shot. It has a nice color. I raised it to my mouth... and that was when I got my first whiff of doubt that this was going to be a good brew. The smell was... shall we say... not good? But I wasn't going to let that stop me. I took a nice big sip, another nice big sip. Pause. Another nice big sip.
Hmmm. How shall I say this? Was it awful? No. Was it great? Absolutely not. How about good? Was it good? Mmmm... no. Was it OK? Mmmm... yes. Light carbonation, bitter, a hint of citrus.
I guess the best conclusion I can come to is that it is drinkable. That's not saying a lot, but in all honesty, of the six I bought, there are only three left in the fridge too weeks later, so somebody's drinking them. And since I'm the only beer drinker in the house... Plus I could not, in good consciousness, offer a friend or family member one of these.
I would say if you want to try a very good pilsner, get a Lagunitas PILS or Blue Paddle by New Belgium. You can't go wrong there. I would avoid the Josephsbrau PLZNR. I love Trader Joe's, and I'll try some of their other store brand beer offerings, but I won't be buying this one again.
