Beer of the Week – Victory Prima Pils

A couple of years ago, when I reviewed the classic Czech beer Pilsner Urquell in this column, I noted that while I recognized and respected it as a great beer that was the originator of the Pilsner style, I felt that there were a number of newer Pilsners that were better, at least to my palate. Specifically, I mentioned Prima Pils from Pennsylvania's Victory Brewing, a beer that wasn't available in Ontario at the time, but that I had enjoyed many times when it had previously been on the menu at specialty beer bars like Smokeless Joe and beerbistro.

The day after it was posted, my review received a comment from an irate European named Alex who questioned how I could prefer over the great Pilsner Urquell a beer "from Pennsylvania made with a chines (sic) hops" that reminded him of "low quality, mass-market American beers". Which would've been a valid comment if Prima Pils was a typical North American pseudo-Pilsner in the style of Bud and Blue.

But as anyone who has actually tried it would know, it most definitely is not.

Of course, I can't completely blame Alex for his knee-jerk reaction. To most beer drinkers around the planet, "American beer" is synonymous with the fizzy and nearly flavourless yellow lager that makes up a huge percentage of the beer market not just in the US, but around the world. And Czechs and other Europeans have the right to be especially irate, as the beer that spawned most of these so-called Pilsners was Budweiser, a watered-down American rip-off of the style created and perfected in their country/continent.

What many of these international beer drinkers don't know, however, is that the craft brewing revolution of the last three decades has led to the American beer scene being unparallelled in many ways, with over 1500 breweries producing a multitude of beers in styles ranging from classic and traditional to modern and experimental. My angry critic Alex admitted in a follow-up comment that he'd never tried Prima Pils, so he obviously wasn't aware of what sort of beer it really was, and simply took "American" to be equivalent to "crap".

Canadians aren't immune to this attitude either, although as more drinkers become interested in better beers, they're also starting to learn about the great things happening south of the border. The problem is that there are very few excellent American beers available in Ontario, but that's an area where the LCBO has been slowly improving things. In addition to Sam Adams Lager and a couple of beers from San Francisco's Anchor Brewing that have been in stores for some time, the Board has given general listings in the last couple of years to brews from Rogue in Oregon, Dogfish Head in Deleware, and Brooklyn and Southern Tier from New York. Most recently, these were joined on the shelves by Victory Prima Pils (LCBO 123281 - $14.95/6x355 mL).

Crafted using traditional European Pilsner ingredients - German pale malt, and Czech Saaz and German Northern Brewer hops - Prima Pils pours a bright golden with a snow white head and visibly active carbonation. The aroma holds a lot of zippy floral hops and a bit of citrus, with some bread crust and biscuity maltiness in the background. The body is crisp and quenching, and the flavour follows the aroma, with the floral/herbal hops providing a pleasantly dry and long finish with a faint hint of lemon zest.

So, do I still think that Prima Pils is better than Pilsner Urquell? That really depends on how you define "better". If one considers Urquell to be the absolute benchmark of the Pilsner style, then it would be near impossible to find any "better" Pilsner, as any variation from Urquell could be considered a flaw. But taking a less pedantic approach, it's hard to deny that Prima Pils is a fantastic beer, and aside from the hopping level being a titch too high, it's also a fine example of a Pilsner. Given the choice between the two, I personally prefer Prima, but am also perfectly happy to quaff an Urquell from time to time.

But as they say, your mileage - and Alex's, obviously - may vary.