Sookram’s Brewing Paparazzi Italian Pilsner (5%)

The Italian pilsner is at best a beer style of dubious legitimacy. How do I know this? Because I asked the man credited with its invention, Birrificio Italiano’s Agostino Arioli, point blank whether or not he believed it was a true beer style, and while he didn’t exactly say ‘no,’ he expended a whole lot of words to avoid saying ‘yes.’

That said, a lot of people seem to believe it is a style of merit, so let’s pretend and have a look at what makes it unique. According to the American Brewers Association, ‘hop aroma and flavor is pronounced and aromatic, derived from late hopping and dry hopping with noble-type hops,’ while the European Beer Consumers’ Union merely suggests that dry-hopping ‘using fresh hops, experimental hops and in some cases hops grown specifically for particular terroir’ is key.

The Beer Judge Certification Program ignores it as a style entirely, while the relatively new WSET beer program says that ‘specific varietals of German or Czech hops, often called noble hops, are used to bring even more floral, spicy, and herbal hop notes to the beer than previously present.’

Indeed, it is on that last point that Arioli agrees entirely. If it is to be a style, he told me, it needs to be dry-hopped with noble hops, meaning Hallertauer Mittelfrüh, Tettnang, Spalt, or Saaz, and depending upon who you ask, perhaps one or two others. (Often included among noble hops are the British Golding and Fuggle, but as they are used almost exclusively in ales, they can be safely excluded from this conversation.) Key, said Arioli, is balance.

And balance is what Birrificio Italiano’s original ‘Italian pilsner,’ Tipopils, has in abundance, and what most so-called ‘Italian pilsner’ pretenders lack. Which brings us to Paparazzi from Winnipeg, Manitoba’s Sookram’s Brewing.  

Pouring a bright light gold, it has an aroma that is a lovely mix of fresh grain, fresh malt, and floral, ever-so-slightly spicy hop. Unlike a lot of beers of its presumed type, and indeed a great number of dry-hopped craft beers in general, you can tell that the dry-hopping here has been accomplished with restraint rather than unchecked enthusiasm.

The palate begins soft and pillowy sweet, honey and a bit of cotton candy, with a very light toastiness. On the mid-palate, the hops assert themselves with grassy, herbal, floral bitterness completely in balance with the receding malt. By the time the finish arrives, this has become bone dry, just a little spicy, and wonderfully refreshing.

I am fortunate enough to have enjoyed Tipopils in Italy on more than one occasion, including at Birrificio Italiano’s Milan taproom, and can attest that it is truly a great beer. This is not that beer, but neither is it at all far from the mark. It is, in fact, a noble – pun intended – and quite delicious homage, and almost enough to make me a believer in the Italian pilsner style.  

93 ($3.49/355 ml)