Coast Mountain Brewing- Crystal Chair Pilsner

Coast Mountain Brewing- Crystal Chair Pilsner Review

One of the lesser talked about corners of beer is gluten. Outside of fad dieters, more people are finding gluten negatively affects them. While Celiac sufferers will have to go to the entirely gluten free beer, i.e. those brewed with sorghum or other gluten free fermentables, the rest of us appreciate a well-made beer that is also lighter on the gluten. Enter “gluten-reducing enzyme”. Turns out there is an enzyme for everything, including eating gluten. This allows a brewery to brew a traditional beer but then add an enzyme that won’t negatively affect the taste. One gluten reduced beer is Coast Mountain’s Crystal Chair Pilsner.

Crystal Chair is medium straw in colour and an excellent, billowing white head (Probably assisted by a not “beer clean” glass. See picture). It has strong carbonation with nice lacing. It has a clean aroma of bread, biscuit and lots of floral and citrus hops relative to style, including notes of lemon and a bit of tangerine. There is also a hint of rose water.

This beer is light bodied with a crisp, sharp mouthfeel. The flavour is noticeably hoppy and bitter, the Vic Secret hops being front and centre, with notes of lemon, strawberry, passion fruit and pineapple acidity. There is a mild amount of clean fermented pale malts for balance. It finishes with a crisp dryness typical of the style with a smattering of hop bitterness.