Evil Twin Brewing

Valby, Denmark/Brooklyn, NY

The Cowboy Smoked Pilsner

5.5% ABV

One of the other newer Evil Twin beers brewed at South Carolina’s Westbrook is The Cowboy, which continues the gypsy brewer’s style-twisting ways with a smoked pilsner. While I’m a big fan of smoked beers, pilsners are … well, they’re pilsners. Generally nothing special in my opinion.

To start, it’s extremely hazy for a pilsner. It’s a murky, fuzzy brownish orange color. There was about a finger of a light bubbly head that dissipated fairly quickly along with some light lacing and alcohol legs.

The smoke on the nose is a bit lighter than other smoked beers I’ve had. It’s that sweeter campfire smokey smell.  There’s a sort of sweeter tropical fruit note on the back and a very mild hoppiness. The malts are also really strong, lending a sweet cereal or biscuit note. There’s a little mango, papaya and pineapple as well. It’s a nice balance overall.

The smoke is also lighter on the palate as well. The taste is very rich and juicy to begin with, and those juicy fruit notes are very prevalent. There’s a lot of an orange juice flavor and richness to it. The smoked flavors pop up on the back of the palate again. It’s like a sweet BBQ smokiness that lingers nicely. Not overpowering or too strong. Really unique.

I liked how the smoked malts didn’t overpower the rest of the beer. It would have been easy to just make this a smoke bomb, but the smoke was a compliment if anything. And the juicy fruit flavors from the pilsner malts helped bring out the richness of the smoked malts.