Pizzaiolo is Italian for the person who makes the pizza, and the name is a more pointed choice than it might first appear. North Park Beer Co. runs a pizza shop: the Crown Point Pizza Shop in Pacific Beach is one of its three San Diego locations, a 24-tap room with a kitchen built around pizza. The new Italian-style pilsner is named after the job.

Pizzaiolo is 5.2 percent ABV and hopped with Czech Saaz and Saphir. That is a well-matched pair for the style. Saaz is the noble hop at the center of Czech pilsner, spicy and herbal and deliberately restrained. Saphir is German, bred in the same tradition but carrying a citrus lift that the older noble varieties do not have. Between them they account for most of what the brewery lists in the aroma: bright lemon zest, fresh-cut herbs, and a subtle floral note. On the palate, North Park describes cracker, Meyer lemon, and malty flaky bread crust, finishing on what the release notes call a snappy bitterness.

Italian-style pilsner is the newest branch of the pilsner family. It takes a German-leaning base and pushes it toward a drier, firmer bitter finish and a louder noble-hop aroma than its ancestors. The style has become one of the standard taproom answers to the question of what to drink with a pizza. That is a claim North Park is unusually well placed to test.

One practical note: unlike the other three cans in this week's release, Pizzaiolo is available for taproom pickup only and is not part of the brewery's California shipping offer.

Editor’s Take

The pairing writes itself, and normally that would count against it, but there is something deeply satisfying about a brewery that operates its own pizza shop naming a pilsner after the person running the oven. Most beer-and-food pairings are an act of faith performed by a writer who has had neither item recently. This one is closer to a job description.

It would also hold up as a pairing on the merits. Saaz and Saphir put lemon zest and cut herbs in the aroma, which is more or less the top half of a margherita, and the snappy bitter finish North Park describes is exactly the thing that resets a palate between slices once the mozzarella starts winning. Taproom pickup only, this one - which, given who is doing the pouring, is less a restriction than a hint about where to drink it.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.

Pizzaiolo Is Named for the Job at Its Own Pizza Shop

Pizzaiolo is Italian for the person working the pizza oven, and North Park happens to run a pizza shop. The new Italian-style pilsner is hopped with Czech Saaz and German Saphir, and it is taproom pickup only.

Source & Editorial