There’s an invasion going on, at least in the world of beer. Fresh off ever-expanding sales nationwide, a veritable army of west coast brewers is marching eastward, opening new locations across the country. Sierra Nevada and New Belgium will both soon open new breweries in Asheville, North Carolina, while Stone and Deschutes are both considering operations in South Carolina. Lagunitas recently opened a new brewery in Chicago as well.

One could say the trend started way back in 1996 when Seattle’s Redhook built a brewery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, but the recent wave began on December 12^th, 2012 when the Oskar Blues Brewery built a new brewhouse in Brevard, North Carolina.

Just the other day, I enjoyed a fresh mug of Oskar Blues Mama’s Little Yella Pils from the new Brevard brewery at Taco Mac. Mama’s Little Yella Pils is a, well, I’ll let OB tell you a little about it:

Oskar Blues’ Mama’s Little Yella Pils is an uncompromising, small-batch version of the beer that made Pilsen, Czech Republic, famous. Unlike mass market “pilsners” diluted with corn & rice, Mama’s is built with 100% pale malt, German specialty malts, and Saaz hops. While its rich with Czeched-out flavor, its gentle hopping (35 IBUs) and low ABV (just 5.3%) make it a luxurious but low-dose (by Oskar Blues standards) refresher.

I paid a reasonable $6 for my mug of Mama’s Little Yella Pils. While I was sipping, I was looking for some background information and happened to look at Ratebeer.com. How the hell does this beer get 50 (a failing grade) overall but 92 (an “A”) for style on Ratebeer? That certainly seems foolish to me, and calls into question the usefulness of these crowd-sourced beer review sites.

My mug of Oskar Blues Mama's Little Yella Pils arrived a brilliant golden color with a moderate foamy head and a grassy herbal hop nose. Taking a sip, I got clean biscuit malt up front, a slightly creamy body, and some grassy, herbal hops in the aroma and a sharply bitter finish.

This is a good Pilsner, though not as buttery as a real Czech Pils, but it’s close on the malt and hops character. Which begs the question, if it’s a good example of a Czech Pils (I give it a B) how can it get an F overall? It won’t from me, folks.

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