Eras – a West Coast Pilsner from Imagine Nation – is absolutely amazing.
Imagine Nation was just featured on Belt’s Beer Garden a few months ago, with their delicious breakfast stout, Second Breakfast. And, while I try to not repeat breweries too often on here, I had to give them another shout out.
I especially wanted to reiterate that the Missoula, Montana brewery is a force for good. They have hosted over 3500 community events, helped over 500 different organizations, and given back nearly a quarter of their profits to local causes which is just amazing. Everyone should be going out to support this brewery because, on top of all the good they do for their community, they make AMAZING beers.
While Imagine Nation is known for their hoppier and hazy brews, today I have one of their newer, lighter, options – Eras.
However, this West Coast Pilsner isn’t like most Pilsners…they used six – yes SIX – varieties of hops when making it!! The crew at INBC packed Eras with Magnum, Sterling, Nelson Sauvin, Citra Cryo, HBC 586, and Nectaron hops…that’s more hop varieties than most IPAs have! It has a lower, 5%, ABV and the 16-ounce can was packaged back on May 15th and cost me about $6.50.
The brew poured a bright golden color with some light haze that cleared up after a few moments, making the beer quite translucent. There was minimal head building up, just under a finger of pure white foam. The bubbles clumped towards the edge of the glass, leaving a small accumulation and some moderate lacing.
On the nose Eras was light and hoppy. The malt bill was hidden entirely underneath all the hoppy notes that it was giving off. And there were a lot of different hop characteristics peeking out in the smell. It was slightly dank, slightly resinous and diesel-y, and slightly tropical too. There were big notes of earthy pine/weed/flowers, some white grapes from the Nelson, juicy mango and passion fruit, a dash of peach and apricot, and even some zesty lemon and grapefruit. It was the most aromatic pilsner I’ve ever encountered.
Each sip begins with a super light and softer mouthfeel. There is some body to the beer but it sits insanely light and drinks like water.
The grains actually lead things off with just a pinch of breadiness before the hop flavors take the lead. It’s the white grape and stone fruit flavors that hit first – with peach and apricot blending very nicely with the dryer grape quality.
It’s the tropical fruits that appear next, with a flash of mango and passion fruit. Those juicy flavors don’t last too long and quickly fade allowing the zesty, slightly resinous lemon and grapefruit notes to appear. There is a bit of that citrus peel bitterness and the tiniest amount of pine on the back end but it is very, very light.
That super dank and diesel-y aroma does not appear in the taste at all. It’s very much controlled by the stone fruits early and the citrusy, pithy rind flavors later. And it’s insanely light and crisp. This beer lasted me maybe, MAYBE, ten minutes before it was gone.
It was sooooo good. So light. So flavorful. So delicious. I really wish I had bought a case of this brew instead of the single can. I missed out on 23 more of these. If you can still find this beer…buy it. If you like lagers, it’s super light and crushable. If you like IPAs, it’s got a lot of West Coast IPA qualities and flavors without the ABV or hoppy bite. It’s the best of both worlds.
