CulturAle Press

Green Bench Postcard Pils American Pilsner, St. Petersburg, Florida

Date:  November 26, 2018

The Story—  Green Bench takes its name from the fact that near the turn of the 20th century thousands of public benches, painted green, welcomed visitors and bonded locals in St. Petersburg, Florida.  Founded in 2013, and brewing on a modest 15 barrel system, it’s expanded its marketing area well up the East coast – we found this bottle at Half Time in Poughkeepsie, New York.  We worry when breweries outreach their natural market area;a 15 barrel system ought to be challenged to keep up with it’s local demand.  Many of the several beers we had from Green Bench had seen better days. An inspection of the date indicated it had been in spent 6 months in transit before reaching our cart.   Still, we had to admire the professionalism of the beers.   Even well out of date, the beers were pleasant and interesting.   Next time we’re near St. Pete’s, well be standing at Green Bench’s door at opening time.

The Beer—The usual suspects stroll through the flavors of this citrus forward IPA, but after 180 days the lemon and orange are sweeter than tart even though there’s a peel-ish oil.  Chewiness may have increased over the half year, or may have been a part of the original taste, though we’d bet it would have played a less prominent role.

Value — Fair, even with some age on it.  We’re pretty sure it would be Good and maybe even Very Good if we could have gone to the brewery to get it.

This week we focus on the US to highlight some great American craft beers, some of which we’ve found in researching out first US Beer publication: Brews and Snooze-– Breweries you can visit and walk back to a fine place to spend the night.  Look for it in 2019.

Next week we return to  HIGHLIGHTS OF EUROPE–  Some of the great beers we’ve found in our European travels.   A few may be some of the surprisingly good beer we’ve found in “bad beer cities”  as we researched our next book – a guide to great beer in European tourist cities. (Planned publication 2019.)   We’ll shift back to great American beer finds next week.

COMING IN DECEMBER:   THE TEN BEST IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS.  We count down to the New Year by thinking back of some of the greatest beers we’ve found in the last five years of hunting.   These beers are in our top 0.2% of the beers we’ve tasted recently.   

 About these posts:  We taste and evaluate over a thousand beers every year.  The beers posted here rank in the top quarter of those tastings.   Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.