Today Milton brewer Liz, Brewmaster Tim, Ben (our Brewpub brewer) and I are brewing Piercing Pils. We don't do many lagers at Dogfish. And we don't do too many straightforward Reinheitsgebot brews. 

Don't worry, this is a lager, but it ain't so traditional ...  or is it?

Long before beer was only fermented from grain sugar many cultures made alcoholic beverages that combined fruit and cereal fermentables.  

Piercing Pils is, I believe, the first perry-pilsner hybrid brewed commercially. A perry is fermented pear juice. Ours has a lot of Saaz hops and Czech pilsner yeast, but it also has a double-digit percentage of the fermentable sugars coming from pear juice and a custom-blended white pear tea that we add at the end of the boil for aroma. 

The Milton brewing and QC teams have been working on R&D recipes of this beer for about six months or so. We finally have a winning recipe. It's just over 6% ABV and the pear fruit-complexity PIERCES through the spicy Saaz hops beautifully. Look for Piercing Pils to go on tap at our Rehoboth Beach brewpub in mid-August ... and perhaps it will head out on tour and sing its way across the country some day in the future.

cheers