The Origin Story
We knew we wanted a pilsner. Everyone was leaning German-style—there weren’t as many examples of Czech-style pilsner around. There weren’t a ton of examples of American pils, for that matter. Part of the reason we decided to go that route was, frankly, how American craft brewers do things when we’re adventuring into something new: We wanted boundaries, but we didn’t want as many. We didn’t want the constraints that we would place on ourselves to match style guidelines.
So we wanted some way to make it our own. Sure, we also wanted to tackle more traditional styles and make them as accurately as we could. But with Postcard being a core brand, this approach seemed to fit. And it allowed us to make a beer that we thought would fit Florida—and specifically St. Petersburg—perfectly.
A Beer for Its Place
We wanted a nice brightness. We wanted a bit of hop character—which isn’t uncommon in pilsners. As I was trying different pilsners, there was this European character not just to the fermentation but also to the hop profile. This is one of the only lagers we make that we ferment as high as 55°F (13°C). We get a bit of fruitiness in the fermentation characteristics when we go to that temperature. We thought that profile paired well with Mt. Hood—not a continental European hop, but it has similarities to those.