Belt’s Beer Garden: Sur-really Good

Dssolvr calls Asheville, North Carolina home and loves the surreal…in fact, their slogan is “brewed until surreal”. They can be found in North Carolina and very occasionally outside of the Tar Heel State.

I had a chance to visit their taproom back in late 2020 and really want to make it back now that everything is more open. I have a soft spot for them because they were my first stop in Asheville and I loved the vibe of their taproom back then (maybe it’s changed now but I bet it’s still cool as hell).

Living out on the other side of the country means I don’t have access to their beers often. However, I was able to find a can of their Here to Destroy pilsner and needed to try it.

This American pilsner was brewed with Asheville’s own Riverbend Malt House’s Chesapeake Pilsner malt and a slew of Willamette hops. A four pack of 16-ounce cans is just $14, with each pint having a 5.2% ABV.

Here to Destroy poured a cloudy straw color with about two fingers of fluffy white head billowing upwards. The foam was nice and dense and slowly faded down into a small accumulation around the edge of the glass. It left some decent lacing but nothing too much.

The aroma was quite balanced. It combined notes of lemon and that cereal-like Pilsner malt scent. It was light but there was also a slightly bitter hint of those Willamette hops that added a bit of peppery spice.

Each sip starts very subtly. It’s light and crisp early on but the flavors quickly begin to swell upwards underneath a fizzle of carbonation. The lemon notes hit first and are the most dominant flavor profile early on. It’s a bright and zest lemon characteristic with some juiciness to it initially that fades after a few moments.

However, those hops that I picked up on in the smell were not shy in the taste. There was a nice bitter pang that offered up notes of black pepper and a grapefruit rind pithiness that did challenge the lemon notes midway through and continued on for the remainder of the swig.

The beer finished mostly crisp and clean, but did have that slight citrus rind quality on the back half that added a bit of a twinge and dryness to the beer that lasted for a little bit after everything else had faded.

I was a fan of the extra hoppiness to this pilsner. It gave Here to Destroy a nice bite and added those black pepper and citrus peel notes to the otherwise one-sided flavor of lemon. But I can see how some lager lovers or hop-haters might think it’s a bit much.

It’s still light and crushable; it just has that bigger hop bite. If you can handle a bit of hoppiness, you’ll like this brew.